GREEN BAY, Washington (WBAY) – Aurora Medical Center officials say an employee is no longer in the company after an investigation revealed that the employee acknowledged that he intentionally left out dozens of vials of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine overnight at Grafton, Wisconsin.
According to a statement sent in the early hours of Wednesday evening, attorneys for attorney Aurora Health say an internal review was initiated immediately after learning of the incident earlier this week and was believed to be caused by a human error. However, officials now say the person in question acknowledged Wednesday that the vaccine was intentionally removed from a refrigerator in the pharmacy.
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Company officials say they have notified authorities for further investigation, saying they are “more than disappointed that this individual’s actions result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine.”
Once the vaccine has been thawed, it cannot be re-frozen.
In addition, Aurora officials say they continue to believe that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic and that the action was a violation of its core values.
An earlier report stated that 50 vials were set aside when an employee removed them from the refrigerator to access other items and was unable to put them back on Friday night.
However, company officials have increased that figure to 57, saying this meant discarding more than 500 doses of the vaccine.
Aurora employees did not identify the employee.
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