Its freezer kaput, this NorCal hospital had two hours to give out 600 vaccine shots

[Demovictory9]

https://news.yahoo.com/freezer-kaput-norcal-hospital-had-034638910.html


At 11:35 on Monday morning, senior staff at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County were holding their first 2021 executive meeting when the hospital pharmacist interrupted: The compressor on a freezer storing 830 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine had stopped working hours earlier, and the alarm meant to guard against such failure had failed.

The doses were quickly thawing.
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At 11:35 on Monday morning, senior staff at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County were holding their first 2021 executive meeting when the hospital pharmacist interrupted: The compressor on a freezer storing 830 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine had stopped working hours earlier, and the alarm meant to guard against such failure had failed.

The doses were quickly thawing.

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Medical staff estimated they had two hours to use them before they would no longer be viable.

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With the minutes ticking down, the medical team made the decision that the goal would be to inject every dose, regardless of state guidelines. The medical team felt that "the more people we vaccinate just brings us closer to herd immunity," said Winiger.


Winiger got on the phone, trying to give the shots first to those on the priority lists. One local elder care facility took 40 doses for staff and the hospital's chief medical officer drove them to the facility himself.

About 200 doses belong to the county, and were being stored by the hospital. Winiger said those doses were returned to the county.

Lt. John Bednar, who helps run the county jail, said his facility received 97 of those doses at about 1 p.m. The jail has been experiencing an outbreak, with about three dozen inmates out of 250 currently positive, he said. About a dozen staff have also fallen ill with the virus.


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Then hospital staff blasted out a text to employees letting people know that anyone who showed up could have the shot.

"We just told them 'Tell everyone you know,'" said Winiger. "We just wanted to make sure none of this goes to waste."

By noon, within 15 minutes after learning of the freezer failure, shots were being administered at all four sites. Lines began to form as word spread and some staff was siphoned off for crowd control, which Winiger said was "insane."

At the site Winiger ran, about 30 people were turned away after the doses ran out. At the main site near the hospital, she estimates about 120 people left without the shot.

But by the two-hour deadline, every dose had found a patient, said Winiger.

[Karadeniz]

1. I'm so glad they got some vax to the county jail!

[Klaralven]

2. Moderna Announces Longer Shelf Life for its COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate at Refrigerated Temperatures

Shipping & Long-term Storage: For shipping and longer-term storage, Moderna expects that mRNA-1273 will be maintained at -20°C (-4°F), equal to most home or medical freezer temperatures, for up to 6 months. Using standard freezer temperatures of -20°C (range of -25° to -15°C or -13° to 5°F) is an easier and more established method of distribution and storage than deep freezing and most pharmaceutical distribution companies have the capability to store and ship products at -20°C (-4°F) worldwide.

Refrigeration Storage: After thawing, to facilitate storage at points of administration, Moderna expects that mRNA-1273 will remain stable at standard refrigerated conditions of 2° to 8°C (36° to 46°F) for up to 30 days within the 6-month shelf life. The stability at refrigerated conditions allows for storage at most pharmacies, hospitals, or physicians’ offices.

Room Temperature for Vaccination: Once the vaccine is removed from the refrigerator for administration, it can be kept at room temperature conditions for up to 12 hours.

https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-longer-shelf-life-its-covid-19-vaccine

The hospital doesn't have a kitchen with ordinary freezers and refrigerators?

[xmas74]

6. That would be against most health codes

You can't store food and medications in the same unit, especially in a commercial set up. A vaccine like this would need locked up at all times, signed out to a select people. The kitchen staff are not medical staff. Allowing possible access could set up a facility for a lawsuit later.

Best to vaccinate as many as possible and not let it go to waste.

[GopherGal]

11. Probably can't re-freeze anyway

Moderna is unlikely to have any data to support efficacy after thaw/re-freezing, so they likely had no option other than to use it within hours or trash it. (Even presuming they had adequate additional freezer capacity to re-freeze.)

If I read correctly, after the compressor failure, the alarm system failed to notify them when the temperature first exceeded the desired range, so when the issue was finally discovered, the clock was ticking on the allowable time at warmer temps and options were limited.

As for using the food-service freezer/refrigeration capabilities, that might be adequate for a short-term emergency situation (with someone monitoring the freezer the whole time, all food removed from it), possibly with a jerry-rigged temperature monitoring situation. Long-term, the food-service freezer may not meet the specifications needed for medication with a traceable temperature calibration and control within the required range (i.e. not oscillating too widely).

[DeminPennswoods]

3. Fauci was on with Chris Hayes, iirc, last evening

and was asked if it made sense to just vaccinate people regardless of where they fell in the CDC's priority guidelines. Fauci said it did if the doses were going unused by the priority group for which they were intended.

One good thing about this story is it shows lots of people are ready, willing and eager to be vaccinated.

[orangecrush]

4. Sabotage

By a trumpist cult member?

Sorry for the paranoia, but my mind goes back to the last idiot who destroyed vaccine intentionally.

[Retrograde]

13. Freezers can fail at unexpected times

as I can vouch for given my experiences with home ones - and usually at the most inconvenient times. Sabotage is possible, but I'd expect a Trumpist to claim credit for it by now.

[orangecrush]

16. Probably right

Thanks!

[GopherGal]

14. Eh, unlikely

Dead compressors happen.
My past workplace kept one or two spare -80 freezers continually plugged in* and running as back-ups for situations like this.

I've been the lucky soul carrying the emergency notification phone* that week who's found myself in the lab near midnight on a Friday night hauling around a tray full of dry ice while shifting contents of a dead freezer to the back-up freezer.

My reward on Monday morning? I got to start placing calls to repair the freezer and/or get a quote on a new one.

*They were all plugged into the uninterruptible emergency power. Yes, failures were frequent enough that we had an emergency number sticker on all the freezers and maintained a shared cell phone for the building monitor to call when they received an alarm notification.

[orangecrush]

15. Thanks for the info!

And good work on your part!

[kirkuchiyo]

5. Seems like this

is the sense of urgency that should apply to all aspects of the distribution...

[LymphocyteLover]

7. I can't wait until Biden gets in and we can actually have an orderly vaccination procedure set up

[Hugin]

8. +1

[TheFarseer]

9. Do that with all available doses!

Let's get this done and not discriminate. I don't understand how we determine who is high risk anyway. I have elderly relatives with health problems that are NOT high risk. If they're not high risk, then the term has no meaning. Just administer the doses to whoever wants them. That protects the high risk folks through herd immunity in an indirect way anyway. Get this done!

[BannonsLiver]

17. You may be on to something

Theoretically the way most states are doing it slows the entire process creating a massive backlog wherein a huge percentage of the population is at the back end of the process rather than the front end.

[greenjar_01]

12. Very organized country we have here

Cool cool.