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An American pharmacist has been arrested on suspicion of deliberately ruining hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by taking them out of the refrigerator for two nights.
The Grafton Police Department in Milwaukee said the former Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, tampering with a prescription drug and criminal damage to property.
The department did not identify the pharmacist and said he has not yet been indicted but is in custody.
His motive remains unclear. Police said detectives believe he knew the damaged doses would be useless and the people who received them would mistakenly think they had been vaccinated when they had not.
Advocate Aurora Health Medical Group Director Jeff Bahr told reporters that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials containing hundreds of doses of the Modern vaccine from refrigeration at a Grafton medical center overnight from Dec. 24 through on Christmas day, he returned them and then left them outside again. on the night from 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 vaccine to access other items in the refrigerator and did not inadvertently replace it.
The Moderna vaccine is still viable for 12 hours out of refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest.
Police said the discarded doses were worth between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said health system officials became more suspicious of the pharmacist as they reviewed the incident.
After multiple interviews, the pharmacist acknowledged Wednesday that he deliberately removed the vaccine and left it outside overnight on two occasions.
Mr Bahr said that means that the doses people received on Saturday are practically useless. Moderna has told Aurora that there are no security issues, but that the system is closely monitoring them.
Bahr declined to comment on the pharmacist’s motive.
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