Wisconsin police arrest former hospital worker whose alleged actions led hospital to throw out more than 500 vaccine doses

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Fri, 2021-01-01 12:32 — mike kraft

Wisconsin police arrest former hospital worker whose alleged actions led hospital to throw out more than 500 vaccine doses Police in Grafton, Wisconsin, have arrested a recently fired pharmacist they say removed 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine from a local hospital's refrigerator and left them to sit out. Steve Almasy, Kay Jones and Jason Hanna, CNN CNN

(CNN) Police in Grafton, Wisconsin, have arrested a recently fired pharmacist they say removed 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine from a local hospital's refrigerator and left them to sit out.

Investigators believe the man removed the vaccine "knowing they would not be usable," a police news release from Thursday says.

According to police, the hospital pharmacist allegedly provided public safety officials at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton with a written statement saying he intentionally removed the vials, knowing that if they were not properly stored, the doses would be ineffective.

A pharmacy tech found 57 vials in the early hours of Saturday, December 26, and put them back in the refrigerator, the president of Aurora Health Care Medical Group, Dr. Jeff Bahr, told reporters Thursday.

"Based on information available, (we) determined that the vaccine was still able to be administered on the morning of December 26, given the 12-hour period of viability after removal of refrigeration," Bahr said.

But during the course of an internal investigation, the former employee said the vaccines were also removed for a period of time in the overnight hours of December 24 and 25.

Bahr said 57 vaccinations that were given Saturday are either less effective or ineffective, based on the new information provided by the pharmacist.

The pharmacist, a resident of Grafton who was not identified, could face charges of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, adultering a prescription drug, and criminal damage to property.

All three charges are felonies, according to the news release. ..

The vials' removal from refrigeration at the medical center just north of Milwaukee, and the subsequent need to discard many of them Saturday, means more than 500 doses were lost, Advocate Aurora Health said. ...

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