Nearly 2,000 doses of COVID vaccine spoiled at Jamaica Plain VA facility after freezer unplugged

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Channel 25, Boston

Nearly 2,000 doses of COVID vaccine spoiled at Jamaica Plain VA facility after freezer unplugged

By: Boston25News.com Staff
Updated: January 22, 2021 - 9:43 AM

BOSTON — Nearly 2,000 doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain were spoiled after a storage freezer was mistakenly unplugged earlier this week, according to a Boston VA Healthcare System spokesperson.

The 1,900 frozen doses of the vaccine were stored in a secure location with an alarm, the spokesperson said in a statement, but the alarm failed, and VA Boston Pharmacy staff discovered the issue Tuesday. ... “The plug was found loose after a contractor accidentally removed it while cleaning,” the statement said.

Moderna’s vaccine must be stored cold to maintain its effectiveness. For long-term storage, up to 6 months, the company says it should be frozen at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. For up to 30 days, it can be refrigerated at 36-46 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a standard home or medical refrigerator, and for up to 12 hours, it can be kept at room temperature.

The Boston VA said an investigation is underway to determine why the alarm failed and how the freezer was unplugged. It’s unclear how long the freezer was unplugged before the spoiled doses were discovered. ... Doses to replenish the spoiled supply “are in process and we do not foresee disruption of our vaccination effort,” the statement said.

Read more: https://www.boston25news.com/news/health/nearly-2000-doses-covid-vaccine-spoiled-jamaica-plain-va-facility-after-freezer-unplugged/TWYS7X2LSZACNFGADCE5XTAAOA/

[bluestarone]

1. Just seems like there are people out there ALL OVER that

Want people to die. They will do anything and everything to stop Biden from succeeding! (even if people die) We are INFECTED with EVIL along with Covid!

[Journeyman]

2. "I always unplug the refrigerator when I'm mopping the floors" . . .

Who does this kind of stuff?

I wouldn't unplug a refrigerator if I was cleaning inside it.

[OriginalGeek]

14. well, to be fair, it does happen

I'm in IT for a large company and we deal with desktops and lots of other devices that periodically get unplugged by cleaning crews. My favorite ones are when branches put in a ticket saying their fax/copier just stopped working and we ask them to check the power plug and most times we find it's loose. Cleaning crews move big devices around to mop and they shove their vacuums under desks and stuff gets knocked around.

I don't believe that's what happened here (I'm at the cynical point right now that any damage to covid vaccine is full on terrorist doings) but it does happen.

[atreides1]

3. Accident my ass!!!

Sure it was, because everyone that cleans behind a freezer unplugs it first!

This was an accident like the pharmacist who left out 500 doses, a few weeks ago!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Unfortunately there are probably a lot more of this type of thing going on

not necessarily someone "accidentally unplugging an 'alarmed' freezer" , but just vaccine that is out of frozen storage for > 12 hours at mass vaccination sites (even if refrigerated), where you have to factor in transport time to a site and setup time before beginning what might be an "all day" set of vaccinations.

[Maxheader]

5. murphys' law..

Shit happens.

[Paladin]

6. If my 2nd Moderna dose was in that batch, I'm gonna be pissed.

I wouldn't think a fuckup in VA would impact me here in TX, but we're still in the grasp of trump's joke of an anti-covid effort, so who the hell can say?

[More_Cowbell]

9. MA

But at a VA (veterans) hospital. I hope that because it happened even farther away from TX, that you won't be affected. I worry that we're going to end up with a lot of people not getting second vaccinations. Good luck!

[Paladin]

11. Good luck to you as well. And to us all. (nt)

[bluestarone]

7. Don't know how, BUT the vaccine has to be delivered to people that can be trusted.

Somehow, people need to be held liable for their actions! (THIS IS NOT ACCIDENTS)

[marble falls]

8. Just plain what the fuck. We know how to do this, we do it all the time. I'm so glad Joe is on ...

... the job now!

[Mike 03]

10. Upsetting, but at least this was an accident

unlike that prior incident in which vaccine was intentionally spoiled by an anti-vaxxer or some otherwise disturbed individual.

[Scruffy1]

12. At the very least complete incompetence.

Someone who is in authority should have assigned some person to check the freezer at periodic intervals. This is usually done in all large facilities with the HVAC equipment and requires a log entry. Federal buildings require this on things that are important like boilers and chillers. The interval is 2 hours and has to be logged.

[WinstonSmith4740]

13. Hm-m-m-m.

"Curiouser and curiouser", said Alice.

Reminds me of how police body cams always seem to not be working when they're in the process of executing people.

[alphafemale]

15. No CCTV?

Hard to believe.

Those are everywhere now.

[paleotn]

16. Seems there's been a whole lot of "accidents"

around Covide-19 vaccine. Lots and lots of "accidents". I'm not a conspiratorial thinker, but even I'm beginning to see a pattern emerging and not just random noise.

[BobTheSubgenius]

17. Very simple and cheap devices are available to prevent this.

They are easy to defeat with a screwdriver, but the idea is to suggest that "Hey. Maybe someone doesn't want this plug to be pulled. Wonder why?"

[LogicFirst]

18. Two letters - BS

[csziggy]

19. This reminds me of the old story of the cleaner unpluggin life support

So patients die in a particular bed. That made the internet rounds in the late 1990s but was completely false. Snopes covered it thoroughly in their early days:

Floor Polisher Hospital Deaths
Did a hospital janitor accidentally cause several deaths by unknowingly unplugging patients' life-support systems?

Snopes Staff
Published 16 January 2001

An inattentive janitor caused several deaths in a hospital when he disconnected patients' life support systems to plug in a floor polisher.
Rating - False

Origin

The 1990s saw the spread of a shocking account of tragic, accidental deaths in the very place where people are supposed to recover from their illnesses — a hospital:

[Collected on the Internet, 1996]

“For several months, our nurses have been baffled to find a dead patient in the same bed every Friday morning,” a spokeswoman for the Pelonomi Hospital (Free State, South Africa) told reporters. “There was no apparent cause for any of the deaths, and extensive checks on the air conditioning system, and a search for possible bacterial infection, failed to reveal any clues.”

“However, further inquiries have now revealed the cause of these deaths. It seems that every Friday morning a cleaner would enter the ward, remove the plug that powered the patient’s life support system, plug her floor polisher into the vacant socket, then go about her business. When she had finished her chores, she would plug the life support machine back in and leave, unaware that the patient was now dead. She could not, after all, hear the screams and eventual death rattle over the whirring of her polisher.”

More, including tracing the origin of the story and other similar tales: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/polished-off/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

20. It happened in an episode of Monk too.

Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect

[csziggy]

21. It's been used in a couple of other TV series, too.

I like the analysis in the Snopes article - it's always the lower paid, lower ranked people who are presumed to be lower intelligence who are blamed for the deaths or problems. It's a class reinforcing myth - that the lower ranked people belong at the bottom because of lack of intelligence.