Just when you thought things were going to go awry with President Joe Biden’s “new” vaccine launch plan, we came across another story about someone stepping on a rake and scraping the works. At Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center in Boston, workers found an unpleasant surprise awaiting them when they arrived Tuesday morning. More than 1,900 doses of Moderna vaccine had “spoiled” overnight and had to be discarded. Unlike some previous cases we covered in which workers intentionally destroyed vaccine vials, this proved to be more of a technical issue. One of the freezers in which the vaccine was stored “failed” without anyone noticing and the vials were considered unfit for use. But it’s the way the freezer failed that raises questions.
Nearly 2,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were pampered at a veterans’ hospital in Boston after a contractor accidentally disconnected a freezer, hospital officials said Thursday.
Staff at Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center discovered Tuesday that a freezer had failed, compromising 1,900 doses of Modern COVID-19 vaccine.
The freezer plug was found to have loosened after a contractor accidentally disconnected it during cleaning, according to a statement from Kyle Toto, a VA Boston Healthcare System spokesman. The freezer had been in a safe place and had an alarm system, he said.
So, basically we see a case in which a porter who cleaned in the night shift either accidentally disconnected the freezer in which the vaccines were kept, or disconnected it while cleaning and forgot to connect it again. Either way, it’s probably not going to be treated as a criminal matter, but the result is the same. Two thousand people, most likely veterans, will not receive vaccinations as soon as it is anticipated.
What they need to know is whether their alarm system works or not. Apparently, the freezer was still working (or it would have been if it had been plugged in), but when its high temperature alarm was supposed to go off after being turned off for a while, no one was informed. This was the real technical failure here.
The reason this is important is that it highlights one of the key issues of the Moderna vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine should be stored at extremely cold temperatures below zero degrees. But the Modern version is not only pampered if it gets too hot, but also if it cools too much. Last weekend, another large shipment of 12,000 Moderna doses sent to Michigan was pampered as they were frozen to sub-zero temperatures. This could have been the result of confusion on the part of the delivery company, believing that it was delivering doses of Pfizer or just another mechanical failure.
What we are learning here is that the Moderna vaccine can be incredibly effective, with a success rate of over 90%, but it is also extremely fragile. It must be stored somewhere in the correct temperature range or it deteriorates quite quickly. Clearly, there should have been much more training not only for the people responsible for storing and managing it, but also for the people hired to transport it. This is yet another reason to look forward to the final approval and widespread release of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 35.6 to 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit and for longer periods of time.