MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – Authorities arrested a Milwaukee suburban pharmacist on Thursday on suspicion of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by taking them out of the refrigerator for two nights.
The arrest marks another setback in what has been a slower and more messy start to vaccinating Americans than public health officials had expected. Leaders in Wisconsin and other states have called on the Trump administration for more doses as health care workers and the elderly approach the life-saving vaccine.
The pharmacist deliberately ruined the vaccine doses, according to police
Grafton police, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, said Pharmacist Advocate Aurora Health was arrested on suspicion of reckless danger, adulteration of prescription drugs and criminal damage to property, all criminal offenses. The pharmacist has been fired and police said in a statement he was in jail. Police have not identified the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been formally charged.
His motive is still unclear. Police said detectives believe they knew the damaged doses would be useless and that people who received them would mistakenly think they had been vaccinated when not.
Aurora Health Care adviser attorney Jeff Bahr told reporters during a teleconference Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials containing hundreds of doses of the Modern Refrigeration Vaccine at a medical center. Grafton during the night of December 24-25. he returned them and left them again on the night of December 25 to Saturday. The vials contained enough doses to inoculate 570 people.
A pharmacy technician discovered the vials outside the refrigerator on Saturday morning. Bahr said the pharmacist initially said he had removed the vials to access other items in the fridge and that he unwittingly did not put them back on.
57 people received ruined doses
The Modern vaccine is viable for 12 hours outside of refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest. Police said the rejected doses were worth between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said health care officials suspected the pharmacist more as they reviewed the incident. After multiple interviews, the pharmacist acknowledged Wednesday that he intentionally removed the vaccine over the two nights, Bahr said.
That means the doses received on Saturday are virtually useless, he said. Moderna has told Aurora that there are no safety issues, but the hospital system is closely monitoring people who received the pampered doses, she said.
Bahr declined to comment on the pharmacist’s motive. He said the security protocols of the hospital system are solid.
“It was a situation that involved a bad actor,” he said, “unlike a bad trial.”
Wisconsin COVID cases are on the rise
The number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin has been rising in recent days after falling in early December. The State Department of Health Services reported 3,810 recently confirmed cases on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of increased daily infections. Now the state has seen 481,102 cases.
COVID-19 was a factor in 41 more deaths, bringing the overall death toll in the state to 4,859. The survival rate remained unchanged at 99%.
Just over 47,150 people had been vaccinated in Wisconsin since Monday morning, according to the latest data from the health agency. The state has allocated 265,575 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. By Monday morning, only about 157,000 doses had arrived.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in early December asking him to prioritize more doses for Wisconsin due to the high number of cases, flooded hospitals and the lack of mitigation mandates throughout the world. State.
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