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FRANKFURT / BERLIN: Germany’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign has been overshadowed by an overdose mishap in the north and problems with vaccine transport in the south, prompting 1,000 injections to be shipped.
Some districts in Bavaria said on Monday (December 28) that they would not use the vaccines received over the weekend for fear that the vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech might have become too hot during their delivery in domestic coolers, a spokesman for the Lichtenfels district. .
“There were doubts as to whether the cold chain was maintained at all times,” Lichtenfels district administrator Christian Meissner told Reuters TV.
The vaccine, which uses new technology called mRNA, must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of approximately minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit) before being shipped to distribution centers in specially designed refrigerators filled with dry ice.
Once out of ultra-low temperature storage, the vaccine must be kept between 2 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius to remain effective for up to five days. Pfizer-designed coolers are equipped with GPS trackers to help companies deal with potential storage problems en route.
While BioNTech assumes responsibility for transportation to deep freezing centers, local authorities are tasked with providing safe, refrigerated transportation to individual vaccination centers.
The vaccines arrived in Lichtenfels and six other northern Bavarian districts on Saturday in coolers of the kind used for picnics or camping trips. Temperature recorders in some cases showed intermediate temperatures of up to 15 degrees Celsius.
“BioNTech commented and said that the vaccine was probably fine, but probably not good enough,” Meissner said, adding that the injections would not be used to avoid damaging the public’s confidence in the vaccination campaign.
According to the government of Upper Franconia, where the districts are located, BioNTech had told him: “Based on the facts presented by you in your email of 12/27/2020 at 19:52 and internal stability data we do not see no influence of the described transport deviation on the quality of the vaccines in question “.
BioNTech declined to comment.
After consulting with the Bavarian Ministry of Health, the districts decided not to use the 1,000 injections intended for Lichtenfels, as well as Coburg, Kronach, Kulmbach, Hof, Bayreuth and Wunsiedel, also in northern Bavaria, the Lichtenfels spokesman said.
Local medical staff had said they would not be comfortable using the injections, he said, adding that a new batch of vaccines arrived perfectly refrigerated on Monday and that the vaccination campaign started one day late.
In another part of Germany, in the Vorpommern-Ruegen district, authorities said eight workers at a nursing home in the city of Stralsund received five times the recommended dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine on Sunday.
Four went to the hospital for observation after developing flu-like symptoms.
“I deeply regret the incident. This individual case is due to individual errors. I hope that all those affected do not experience serious side effects,” District Chief Stefan Kerth said in a statement.
The Vorpommern-Ruegen authorities pointed to earlier statements from BioNTech saying that larger doses were tested in the Phase I study without serious consequences.
BioNTech noted the vaccine package insert, which says that in the event of an overdose, monitoring of vital functions and possible symptomatic treatment is recommended.
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