Nearly 600 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines thrown out in Kansas
Transfer error forced officials to discard doses
Cheryl Gerber/AP
By: KSHB Staff
and last updated 2021-03-12 08:31:50-05
KANSAS CITY, Mo. â Almost 600 doses of COVID-19 vaccine went to waste in Douglas County, Kansas, due to a transfer error, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health said Thursday.
LDCPH received and transferred 570 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a refrigerated state to LMH Health on Wednesday afternoon.
Vaccines are usually still frozen when they are transferred in such a manner, LDCPH said.
Because of this, LMH Health followed its typical procedure and placed the doses in a freezer before realizing theyâd already been thawed.
COVID Vaccine Waste: Kansas Throws Out Hundreds Of Shots. Why?
03/12/21 AT 8:57 AM
Nearly 600 doses of COVID vaccines went to waste in a processing error at a hospital in Lawrence, Kansas, according to local health officials.
Lawrence Memorial Hospital had to throw away 570 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine after they were received from the Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health one day earlier.
The vaccine was already thawed at the time of delivery when doses typically arrive frozen and are placed in a hospital freezer until they can be administered to shot recipients. Lawrence Memorial Hospital said it followed standard protocol only to realize that it had received the vaccines in a thawed state, it said in a press release.
Nearly 600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine were wasted due to a faulty transfer of the doses between Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health and LMH