About 70 children in Maryland’s Prince George’s County received expired vaccine doses, according to health officials, as they recommended the children get revaccinated for COVID-19.
The county blamed the incident on a “vaccine storage error,” which occurred when 300 Pfizer doses were transported “from a provider that was unable to administer the doses before they expired on November 24.”
A vendor at the Sports and Learning Complex clinic administered most of the transferred doses before they expired. But 70 remaining doses were not discarded and were mistakenly stored in a refrigerator with other, viable vaccine doses, the country said.
Those remaining doses that had expired were then “mistakenly placed on a tray with viable doses” before they were injected into children on Nov. 26, officials said.
Furthermore, the county health agency claimed there is “no health risk” from receiving the expired Pfizer vaccine but said that “those doses are likely to be less effective at protecting against COVID-19.”
“We deeply regret the error and we apologize for the concern and inconvenience this has caused families,” George L. Askew, a Prince George’s County health official. “As a pediatrician, I want to assure parents that receiving an expired COVID-19 vaccine dose or receiving a replacement dose does not endanger your child’s health.”
The facility, Ted Pharmacy, tried to “attempted to provide a proper dose” by administering about a third of the adult dose, said Loudoun County Health Department director Dr. David Goodfriend in November.
Moderna, another COVID-19 vaccine maker, said in late October that the FDA informed the company that it needs more time to evaluate the company’s shot for 12- to 17-year-olds.
