The COVID-19 vaccine is lost

(NBC NEWS) – A Columbus vaccine provider has been suspended by the Ohio Department of Health for failing to monitor the temperature at which COVID-19 vaccine doses were kept.

According to the Ohio Department of Health, SpecialtyRX, a vaccine provider in Columbus, received 1,500 vaccines to vaccinate residents at eight long-term care facilities before the new year.

After the first doses, ODH said that SpecialtyRX had 890 doses left. The company was exploring a transfer of doses to another supplier when it was discovered that they had failed to properly monitor refrigerator and freezer temperatures, according to ODH.

The Department of Health requires all COVID-19 vaccine suppliers to check and record the minimum and maximum temperatures of refrigerators and freezers on each business day.

Lack of temperature monitoring means that the doses are not usable.

“If you deviate from these storage conditions, you should essentially waste the product,” said Dr. Zach Jenkins, an infectious disease expert and associate professor of pharmacy at Cedarville University. “You really have to throw it in the trash, so to speak, and one of the reasons is that we don’t have the data to tell us how stable and safe that product is beyond that window of time. ”

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