Wisconsin authorities on Thursday arrested a pharmacist suspected of intentionally destroying hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine by taking them out of the refrigerator for two nights.
According to the Grafton Police Department, the former pharmacist of lawyer Aurora Health was arrested on suspicion of reckless threat, adulteration of a prescription drug and criminal damage to property, the Associated Press reported.
Jeff Bahr, chairman of Aurora Healthcare Medical Group, said in a Zoom press release on Thursday that a now-fired pharmacy technician had removed 57 bottles of Modern vaccine from the cold store – enough for about 570 doses – and made them distorted or made them less effective and even ineffective.
Medical staff used doses of denatured vaccine to inoculate 57 people. Bahr said the doses were less effective and potentially ineffective.
“In the next few hours, the clinical leaders met with each other,” Bahr said. “And based on the information available, it was found that the vaccine could still be administered on the morning of December 26, given the 12-hour shelf life after removal from the refrigerator.”
The AP reported that authorities issued a statement saying the suspect was in jail, but did not release personal information because he had not yet been officially charged.
“The pharmacist responsible for removing the vials claimed that this was an unintentional error that occurred while the individual was accessing other items in the same refrigerator,” Bahr said, adding that the suspect later confessed that the removal was intentional.
When asked about the pharmacist’s reason for removing the doses from the refrigerator, Bahr said Aurora could not judge and postponed questions from local authorities.
Hill contacted Grafton Police, but did not receive a response immediately.
“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that the actions of this individual will lead to a delay of over 500 people receiving the vaccine, “the health system said in a statement.