By Walter Elliott
NEWARK – The city’s Department of Health and Wellness is investigating how 300 of its Moderna COVID-19 vaccination doses recently became “unusable.”
Dr Mark Wade, the department’s director, added on March 19 that measures are being taken so that future doses will not expire before their time.
“We’ve revised our delivery and assessment procedures and protocols,” said Wade. “which will be tightly monitored to prevent this from happening again.”
Wade and his deputies are looking for where in the supply chain the doses had expired. It is believed that 300 doses had not been adequately stored or refrigerated within federal CDC and Moderna guidelines.
The vaccines are to be stored in ultra-cold units kept between 5 and -15 degrees Fahrenheit. They may be stored in refrigerators between 36 and 46 degrees F – but for no more than 30 days.
Inoculators, once the doses are thawed, have a short time window to administer them as per manufacturer Moderna.
Moderna and Pfizer require two shots within 42 days of each. other; the CDC recommends a 28-day interval. Johnson & Johnson requires one shot.
The department’s investigation is focused on Moderna since that pharmaceutical company’s doses were revealed during a Feb. 16 public inoculation of a city interfaith clergy group. That group did not receive the expired doses although it is not known whether any unusable shots were inadvertently given.
It is also not known whether spoiled doses caused any canceled inoculation appointments or curtail vaccination hours.
Dr. Wade, at the Feb. 16 vaccination event, aid that Moderna and Pfizer’s doses include synthetically-made mRNA and not live COVID-19 virus strains.
The expired 300 were 15 to 20 percent of the 1,500 to 2,000 weekly doses the city receives from the State of New Jersey Department of Health. The state delivers to the city’s health department offices at 110 William St. and 394 University Ave. – two blocks apart. The city then distributes its allotments among hospitals, pop-up vaccination sites and federally qualified health centers.
Newark’s vaccination supply stream is separate from the streams feeding Essex County’s five regional vaccination centers and others.
The spoiled dose report comes while the city and other authorities are trying to accelerate vaccine supply and widen the criteria for prioritized shot receivers.
Gov. Phil Murphy, for example, added teachers, more essential workers and people at least 65 years old for priority vaccination since March 15. Murphy (D-Rumson) and Lt. Governor Sheila Y. Oliver (D-East Orange) recently visited a pop-up clinic at Orange’s St. Matthew’s AME Church in part to promote minority vaccination.
Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, on the heels of the five centers’ dispensing its 100,000th dose, said that they can handle “25,000 to 30,000 people a week – if we have the supply.” DiVincenzo (D-Roseland) is asking Murphy and the Essex County Congress members to lobby for more doses.
President Joseph Biden recently announced that his nationwide “100 million vaccinations in 100 days” goal was met in half the time.
Wade has not set an investigation report release date.
