Thread by @ConradKnauer

"[The] pharmacist was arrested on suspicion of reckless endangerment, adulterating a prescription drug + criminal damage to property, all felonies. The pharmacist has been fired + police said in a news release that he was in jail. [...] His motive [for sabotage] remains unclear."

https://twitter.com/mem_somerville/status/1344788988931035136

"Police said that detectives believe he knew the spoiled doses would be useless and people who received them would mistakenly think they’d been vaccinated when they hadn’t."

"the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials [...] of the Moderna vaccine from refrigeration [...] overnight on Dec. 24 into Dec. 25, returned them, then left them out again on the night of Dec. 25 into Saturday. The vials contained enough doses to inoculate 570 people."

"A pharmacy technician discovered the vials outside the refrigerator on Saturday morning. Bahr said the pharmacist initially said that he had removed the vials to access other items in the refrigerator and had inadvertently failed to put them back."

"The Moderna vaccine is viable for 12 hours outside refrigeration, so workers used the vaccine to inoculate 57 people before discarding the rest. Police said the discarded doses were worth between $8,000 and $11,000."

"health system officials grew more suspicious of the pharmacist as they reviewed the incident. After multiple interviews, the pharmacist acknowledged Wednesday that he removed the vaccine intentionally over the two nights"

"the doses people received Saturday are all but useless, he said. Moderna has told Aurora that there’s no safety concerns, but the hospital system is closely monitoring the people who received the spoiled doses"