More than 1,000 vaccine doses were damaged in South Florida, and state calls for audit
More than 1,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses were damaged last month in Palm Beach County, according to the Florida Department of Health. Now, the state is calling for an audit of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County to find out what’s going on.
“It is a tragedy that even one dose of this critical resource would go to waste and not be used to save a life from COVID-19,” Florida Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees said in a news release Wednesday announcing the audit.
All vaccination providers are required to store and handle COVID-19 vaccines under the conditions outlined in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Storage and Handling Toolkit, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The CDC does not publish spoilage statistics on its national vaccine dashboard but it does require that states report any wasted vaccines to the federal agency. Despite this requirement, ProPublica reported late last month that some states were not keeping close track of spoilage.
The total number of doses in Florida that were left broken or unused after thawing is small compared to the more than 1.6 million doses that have been administered in the state.
How did Palm Beach County’s COVID-19 vaccine doses spoil?
Palm Beach County residents voted to create the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, which has provided an array of health services to the community since 1988, according to the agency. It’s governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners, three of whom are appointed by Florida’s governor. Three others are appointed by the Palm Beach County Commission, and one is a representative of the state’s Department of Health.
The district on Friday said that while staff was conducting a standard quality assurance check on Jan. 22, they identified 232 vials (approximately 1,160 doses) of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that had spoiled because the power supply of the refrigerator they were in was accidentally turned off. The Pfzer vaccine needs to be kept extremely cold — minus 70 degrees Celsius. That’s colder than winter in Antarctica.
As part of the audit, the health department wants the district to perform “a full accounting of all vaccine-related equipment and procedures it has in place to store and handle the COVID-19 vaccine.”
In a statement sent to the Miami Herald Wednesday afternoon, the Health Care District of Palm Beach County said it planned to comply with the request. It also reiterated that the wasted doses were not given to patients and were disposed of properly.
“This was a single, isolated incident caused by human error that had absolutely no impact on patient safety. The Health Care District also regards the loss of even a single vaccine as one too many,” the district’s statement said in part. “The Health Care District is committed to maintaining the integrity of all vaccine supply and has implemented extra layers of safeguards that include centralizing all COVID-19 supplies daily at a secure location with 24/7 power generator back-up. “
The audit must be completed by Feb. 12 and all findings and corrective actions must be reported to the Florida Department of Health, according to Wednesday’s statement from the health department.
“While we must rely on partners to distribute this critical resource, we expect that every provider treat the vaccine as the precious commodity that it is. We hope to see this situation rectified and addressed immediately to ensure the Palm Beach County Health Care District does not let one more dose go to waste,” Rivkees said.
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau staff writer Kirby Wilson contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 9:59 AM.
