Drugs instead of vaccine

Modena’s Corona 19 vaccine stored in the refrigerator. It can be stored for 30 days at normal refrigerator temperature, but once taken out and exposed to room temperature, it should be used within 12 hours. [AP=연합뉴스]

As vaccination is in full swing in the United States, accidents large and small have followed.
According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 31st of last month (local time), at the Aurora Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the 24th and 25th of last month, a pharmacist took out 57 bottles of Moder or Corona 19 vaccine from a refrigerated storage facility. This is equivalent to 500 servings. The hospital said on the 26th that it discovered this and reported the pharmacist to the police and fired it.

Modena vaccine can be stored for up to 6 months at -20 degrees Celsius, and can be stored for 30 days at a refrigerator temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. However, it should be used within 12 hours after removal from the refrigeration facility. This made the vaccine unusable.

Police investigating the case and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it was unclear why the pharmacist did this. It is known that the pharmacist said at first that it was taken out by mistake, but later admitted that the vaccine was intentionally taken out.

The hospital discarded all the vaccines, but had already given it to 57 people. Jeff Bar, chairman of Aurora Medical Center, said there were no health problems even with the vaccine exposed to room temperature. The mRNA molecules in the vaccine are rapidly degraded at room temperature, so even if the preventive effect is poor, it does not harm the human body.

In the U.S., doctors accidentally administered treatments instead of vaccines.
The West Virginia Defense Forces said on the 30th that they had made a mistake in administering Regeneron instead of the vaccine to 42 people who had been vaccinated. Regeneron is one of the antibody treatments given when you have Corona 19. When President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Corona 19 in November of last year, it is known that he was prescribed Regeneron.

State health officials have said that antibody treatments are harmless to healthy people, and there is no problem with getting the vaccine instead. In a statement, the National Guard said, “It was a mistake by the local public health center, and all those who received the wrong vaccine were notified individually.

On the 22nd (local time) at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, medical staff are intensively treating a patient with Corona 19. In California alone, the cumulative death toll from Corona 19 exceeded 25,000. [AP=연합뉴스]

These mistakes occurred one after another while the number of corona19 confirmed cases soared, and vaccination was not as fast as expected. According to Johns Hopkins Hospital, the number of daily deaths in the United States from Corona 19 on the 30th of last month changed its highest for two consecutive days to 3740. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that over the next three weeks, 80,000 Americans could die from Corona 19.
If the speed of vaccine distribution is delayed as it is now, it is believed that the time when the meaningful collective immunity effect will appear will be after summer.

CNN reported that in areas like California, the situation is so severe that a corona19 patient dies and only leaves an empty bed. “We haven’t gotten out of the woods at all,” said Ahmad Kamal, a doctor at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Washington = Correspondent Pilkyu Kim [email protected]