Jan 6, 2021 — Yesterday was the first board of supervisors meeting of the new year, and the first one ever for First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty and Second District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren, who were sworn in on Monday. Judson Howe, the new CEO for the local Adventist hospitals, was also on hand for a bit of an after-action review of a malfunctioning hospital freezer that
set off a mad dash to vaccinate hundreds of people in two hours.
There were 830 Moderna vaccines in that hospital’s freezer, which exceeded eight degrees centigrade at 2am on Monday morning after the compressor and the malfunction alarm failed. The vaccine is not viable after more than twelve hours at room temperature. Because the malfunction was not discovered until 11:35 on Monday morning, hospital and public health staff reasoned that they had until 2pm to make sure none of the vaccines were wasted. Howe doesn’t know how much warmer than eight degrees the freezer got, but does not believe it was more than room temperature.