MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) – Authorities arrested a suburban pharmacist in Milwaukee on Thursday on suspicion of deliberately destroying hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by taking them out of the refrigerator for two nights.
The arrest marks another hurdle 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 asked the Trump administration for more doses, while health care workers and the elderly line up for the life-saving vaccine.
The pharmacist intentionally destroyed the vaccine doses, police say
Grafton police, about 20 miles north of Milwaukee, said Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless threatening, adulterating a prescription drug and criminally damaging property, all crimes. The pharmacist was fired and police said in a press release that he was in prison. Police have not identified the pharmacist, saying he has not yet been officially charged.
His motive remains unclear. Police said detectives believe they know the pampered doses will be useless, and people who receive them would mistakenly believe they were vaccinated when they did not.
Aurora’s attorney, the group’s chief medical officer, Jeff Bahr, told reporters during a teleconference Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials containing hundreds of doses of Modern vaccine from refrigeration at a Grafton medical center. overnight on December 24th on December 25th he returned them, then left them out again on the night of December 25th until Saturday. The vials contained enough doses to inoculate 570 people.
A pharmacy technician found the bottles outside the refrigerator on Saturday morning. Bahr said the pharmacist initially said he removed the bottles to access other items in the refrigerator and that he had accidentally not put them back.
57 people received destroyed doses
The Modern vaccine is viable for 12 hours outside of refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before throwing away the rest. Police said the doses were between $ 8,000 and $ 11,000.
Bahr said health system officials became more suspicious of the pharmacist as they analyzed the incident. After several interviews, the pharmacist admitted on Wednesday that he intentionally eliminated the vaccine in the two nights, Bahr said.
That means the doses people received on Saturday are almost useless, he said. The modern told Aurora that there are no safety issues, but the hospital system closely monitors people who have received the altered doses, he said.
Bahr declined to comment on the pharmacist’s reason. He said the security protocols of the hospital system are solid.
“It was a situation involving a bad actor,” he said, “as opposed to a bad trial.”
Wisconsin COVID cases are on the rise
The number of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin has risen in recent days after sinking in early December. The State Department of Health Services reported 3,810 newly confirmed cases on Thursday, marking the third consecutive day of increasing daily infections. The state has now seen 481,102 cases.
COVID-19 was a factor in another 41 deaths, bringing the state’s total death toll 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 been allocated 265,575 doses of both Modern and Pfizer vaccines. As of Monday morning, only about 157,000 doses had arrived.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in early December urging him to prioritize more doses for Wisconsin because of the large number of cases, flooded hospitals and a lack of state mitigation mandates.
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