Elise Amendola / AP
A team of fast-acting health care workers saved the day and potentially hundreds of lives on Monday after a freezer malfunction nearly destroyed 830 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Somewhere around 2 a.m. the compressor of the freezer holding vials of the medicine at the Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County, Calif., failed, President Judson Howe told NPR.
That started a ticking clock on the shelf life of the vaccines, which can only be used for 12 hours once they re removed from refrigeration of 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit.
Normally, this would have triggered an alarm, Howe explained. But for some unknown reason, that also failed.
Hospital Scrambles To Find Patients Before Freezer Failure Ruins 830 Vaccines
By Vanessa Romo
January 5, 2021
A team of fast-acting health care workers saved the day and potentially hundreds of lives on Monday after a freezer malfunction nearly destroyed 830 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Somewhere around 2 a.m. the compressor of the freezer holding vials of the medicine at the Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County, Calif., failed, President Judson Howe told NPR.
That started a ticking clock on the shelf life of the vaccines, which can only be used for 12 hours once they’re removed from refrigeration of 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit.