Employee Fired After Reportedly Tampering About 500 COVID Vaccine Doses

A former employee at a Wisconsin health system has been fired after reportedly spoiling 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine.

Aurora Medical Center initially reported a large amount of spoiled doses on Saturday (December 26) and later confirmed that they had been accidentally left out overnight by an employee at its Grafton facility, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The health care company confirmed the employee had "acknowledged that they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration" and was subsequently fired in an official statement released Wednesday (December 30) obtained by the Tribune.

The statement confirmed the employee's termination but didn't mention a possible motive for the incident and officials for Aurora did not immediately respond to the Tribune's request for more information.

“We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine,” Aurora Medical Center said in the statement.

The company declined to provide additional details on Wednesday, but said more information would be made available on Thursday (December 31,) the Tribune reports.

The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is shipped to hospitals in temperature-controlled thermal shippers utilizing dry ice to maintain recommended storage temperature conditions of -70 degrees Celsius+10 degrees Celsius for up to 10 days unopened, according to Pfizer.com.

The vaccine is then stored in refrigeration for five days at refrigerated 2-8 degrees Celsius conditions. After storage for up to 30 days in the Pfizer thermal shipper, vaccination centers can transfer the vials to 2-8 degrees Celsius storage conditions for an additional five days, for a total of up to 335 days.

Once thawed and stored under 2-8 degrees Celsius conditions, the vials cannot be re-frozen or stored under frozen conditions.

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