Authorities on Thursday arrested a pharmacist in suburban Milwaukee on suspicion of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of the coronavirus vaccine by removing it from the refrigerator for two nights.
The Grafton Police Department said the former pharmacist Advocate Aurora Health was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, tampering with a prescription drug and criminal damage to property.
The department said in a press release that he was in prison. Police did not identify the pharmacist, saying he had not yet been formally charged.
Aurora Health Care lawyer medical group chief Jeff Bahr told reporters on a Thursday afternoon teleconference that the pharmacist had deliberately removed 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine from the refrigeration overnight of the 24-25. December, had returned them, then left them aside again. night from December 25 to Saturday.
A pharmacy technician discovered the vials outside the refrigerator on Saturday morning. Workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people. Bahr said their doses were ineffective. Recipients shouldn’t be in danger, he said, but the system is monitoring their conditions.
“It was a situation involving a bad actor, as opposed to a bad process,” he said.
Grafton’s facility had not received any Moderna vaccine until Dec. 24, meaning the pharmacist would not have had the opportunity to tamper with other vials, he added.
“#We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that this person’s actions are causing a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccines, ”the health system said in a statement.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin has increased in recent days after falling in early December. The State Department of Health Services reported 3,810 new confirmed cases Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of the rise in daily infections. The state has now seen 481,102 cases.
COVID-19 was a factor in 41 more deaths, bringing the state’s total death toll to 4,859. The survival rate remained unchanged at 99%.
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