GREEN BAY, Russia. (WBAY) – Aurora Medical Center officials say an employee is no longer with the company after an investigation revealed that the employee admitted to intentionally leaving dozens of bottles of COVID-19 Moderna vaccine overnight at Grafton, Wisconsin.
According to a statement issued early Wednesday evening, Aurora Health’s lawyer officials say an internal review was launched immediately after learning of the incident earlier this week and led them to believe it was caused by human error. However, officials now say the person admitted on Wednesday that the vaccine was intentionally removed from a pharmacy refrigerator.
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Company officials say they have notified authorities of further investigations, saying they are “more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving the vaccine.”
Once the vaccine is thawed, it cannot be frozen.
In addition, Aurora officials say they continue to believe that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic, and the action was a violation of their core values.
An earlier report said 50 bottles were set aside when an employee took them out of the refrigerator to access other items and did not put them overnight Friday.
However, company officials have increased that number to 57, saying this has led to the elimination of more than 500 doses of the vaccine.
The employee was not identified by Aurora’s officials.
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