The Florida Department of Health is calling for an audit of the Palm Beach County Health Care District after more than 1,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were destroyed.
District CEO Darcy Davis addressed the incident to county commissioners on Tuesday.
"It was a single isolated incident. It was a human error and it had absolutely no impact on patient safety."
She says a generator on a mobile vaccination unit was not turned on overnight and that led to a refrigerator containing the 232 vials of the Pfizer vaccine to rise above the recommended temperature.
"We reached out to the manufacturer and confirmed that it was not viable and it was taken from the site. New vaccine was brought in immediately."
As a part of the audit, the district must perform a full accounting of all vaccine-related equipment and procedures it has in place.
Florida State Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees said, "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. In Florida, we have been diligent to preserve and utilize every single dose of the vaccine. 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.”
The audit must be completed by next Friday.
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