The Vermont Department of Health sent a team on Jan. 29 to investigate vaccine storage at Springfield Hospital and found that 860 doses of the Moderna vaccine were stored at slightly too warm a temperature.
The manufacturer determined that the doses were still safe to use, and the hospital expects to administer all the doses by the end of this week. According to a hospital spokesperson, most of the doses have already been administered.
Springfield Hospital has since replaced the state thermometer and purchased a second refrigerator as a precaution in hopes of preventing a similar event in the future.
Ben Truman, a spokesperson for the Department of Health, provided a summary of the visit to VTDigger. He said a second refrigerator has been ordered to help alleviate future temperature fluctuations.
The warming effect, he said, “was possibly due, in part, to the frequent opening and closing of the refrigerator.”
“It just seemed like a good, prudent thing to do,” Anna Smith said of the hospital’s purchase of a second refrigerator. “Every time you open the door to get a vaccine out, it’s going to affect the temperature inside.”
With an extra refrigerator, “You can divide the vaccine between different locations. You’re opening the door fewer times,” she said.
The hospital has also installed racks that allow for better airflow in the refrigerator, another measure to help keep the temperature between the recommended range of 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
The state decided to replace the hospital’s thermometer after it showed a different temperature reading from the two thermometers that Springfield Hospital uses to monitor the storage of vaccines.
While Springfield Hospital’s thermometers displayed temperatures that were under 8 degrees, the state’s thermometer showed that the temperature had reached 9.1 degrees Celsius, which is slightly too warm.
Springfield reported the temperature to the state, which in turn consulted with Moderna, the manufacturer. “The company’s first response — provided verbally — was that the vaccine would need to be disposed of,” according to the state summary.
“However, following additional conversations and a more detailed review of the facts by the company, Moderna determined and confirmed that the vaccine was indeed viable and could be used,” said the summary.
Springfield first reported the issue to the state on Tuesday, Jan. 26. That day, a state official told reporters that the doses would have to be discarded, and two days later, the state announced the doses were, in fact, viable and completely safe for use.
“You can only imagine the amount of man-hours that went into tracking this all down and making sure everything was OK to proceed,” said Smith, who said some outlets misreported that the doses had been thrown away.
“It did hit me like a gust of cold air when we heard that it had been misreported that we had thrown them away,” she said. It has also been misreported that Springfield was replacing their refrigerator, said Smith. They will keep their old refrigerator and use the new one to split up the vaccines.
“We are glad the doses were found safe for use,” the health department concluded.
The summary of the investigation did not determine why the discrepancy between the state’s and Springfield’s thermometers occurred, but two new thermometers have been installed in both Springfield’s refrigerator and freezer.
According to the summary, the updated thermometer from the state “will allow for monitoring temperature in real-time and will alert the Department immediately if there is any problem with the temperature.”
The new digital thermometer automatically sends temperature readings to the state.
Smith credited the thermometer for detecting the problem in the first place.
“The fact is the alarm went off, and we took care of it,” Smith said.
