New Details Indicate Employee at Grafton Medical Center Intentionally Left Out COVID-19 Vaccine

Thursday, December 31st, 2020 -- 12:01 PM

(WBAY) Aurora Medical Center officials say an employee is no longer with the company after an investigation revealed the employee acknowledged they intentionally left out dozens of vials of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine overnight at the Grafton, Wisconsin location.

According to a release sent out early Wednesday evening, Advocate Aurora Health officials say an internal review was immediately launched after learning of the incident earlier this week, and they were led to believe it was caused by human error.

However, officials now say the person in question acknowledged Wednesday that the vaccine was intentionally removed from a pharmacy refrigerator.  Company officials say they have notified authorities for further investigation, saying they are “more than disappointed that this individual’s actions will result in a delay of more than 500 people receiving their vaccine.”

Once the vaccine is thawed, it cannot be refrozen.  In addition, Aurora officials say they continue to believe that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic, and the action was a violation of their core values.

A previous report stated that 50 vials were left out when an employee removed them from a refrigerator to access other items and failed to put them back overnight on Friday.

However, company officials have increased that number to 57, saying that resulted in more than 500 doses of the vaccine being discarded.  The employee wasn’t identified by Aurora officials.  Grafton Police also issued a release Wednesday night, saying the FBI, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, are assisting them with an investigation of the incident.

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