1,900 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines had to be destroyed at a hospital in Boston after a cleaning person accidentally unplugged a freezer. The alarm system failed to notify anyone that the freezer had been unplugged.
According to NBC Boston, the staff at Veterans Affairs Boston Pharmacy found out that a freezer at the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center campus failed and ruined 1,900 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
A plug came out after a contractor “accidentally removed it while cleaning,” according to the VA spokesperson. The freezer was kept in “a secure location” and had an alarm system installed, but that system failed.
An investigation is currently underway to determine the accident’s cause and why the monitoring and alarm system failed to respond. Replenishment doses are in process, the VA spokesperson said, and maintained that the VA does not “foresee disruption of our vaccination effort.”
