Pharmacist accused of ruining COVID-19 vaccine doses is arrested, Wisconsin police say

A Wisconsin hospital pharmacist accused of intentionally ruining hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines was arrested, police say.

Aurora Medical Center in Grafton fired the employee after discovering he intentionally left more than 500 doses of the Moderna vaccine without refrigeration last weekend, forcing the hospital to discard the vials, officials said.

The pharmacist was arrested Thursday, authorities say. Grafton police are seeking charges of felony recklessly endangering safety, adulterating a prescription drug and criminal damage to property. His identity was not released by authorities pending formal charges against the now-fired pharmacist.

Initially, the hospital believed the pharmacist inadvertently forgot the return vials to cold storage, which is required for the Moderna vaccine to be effective. In hopes of salvaging the vaccine, the hospital vaccinated 57 employees within a 12-hour limit after the vaccine supposedly went without refrigeration.

However, officials say they “became increasingly suspicious” of the employee during the investigation, Jeff Bahr, president of Aurora Health Care Medical Group, said at a news conference. Then they discovered the pharmacist intentionally left the vaccine out not only Christmas night but also Christmas Eve, Bahr said.

This meant 57 employees vaccinated on Dec. 26 received an ineffective or less effective dose, Bahr said. There’s no evidence the vaccine tampered with by the pharmacist will cause harm, he said.

“Grafton detectives indicate that the individual knew the spoiled vaccinations would be useless and that people who received the vaccinations would think they had been vaccinated against the virus when in fact they were not,” police said in a news release.

Information about the pharmacist’s motive for destroying the vaccine doses has not been released by police or the hospital.

The lost vaccines are worth an estimated $8,000 to $11,000, police say.

“We feel strongly that our processes are sound,” Bahr said Thursday. “Again, this fell more to a bad actor being involved rather than a bad process.”

Grafton is located about 20 miles north of Milwaukee.