New York Residents Administered With Expired Covid-19 Shots

The coronavirus pandemic is getting more severe with the emergence of new variants. But with the vaccination programs underway, everyone is hopeful of getting protection from the deadly virus and staying safe.

New York Residents Administered With Expired Covid-19 Shots

As per the World Health Organization, if a minimum of 70% of the world population is vaccinated, herd immunity is likely to be achieved. At that time, it will become easy to win the battle against the Covid-19 infection. 

In the United States, the vaccination drive is running at a great pace. Though the vaccination rate slowed down this month as compared to April. President Joe Biden promised to vaccinate 70% of Americans by July 4. Many states are about to reach the milestone, while some states are lagging behind with less than 50% vaccinated population.

While the vaccination drive is underway, a bizarre incident of medical negligence was highlighted recently in New York. 

For the people who are already unwilling and resistant to get their covid-19 shot done, a careless mistake of the health officials is now going to strengthen the doubts against vaccination. 

It is estimated that nearly 99 residents in New York received the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine after the expiration date. The incident took place at a vaccination centre in New York’s Time Square, as reported by the CBS New York reports. The people are now asked to get another appointment scheduled for getting another dose of the Pfizer vaccine. 

About 900 people were vaccinated between June 5 and June 10 at a former national football league exp[erience building. They were administered with the Pfizer vaccine that had expired.    

The vaccines were administered through the ATC vaccination service. ATC has partnered with the New York City Health Department for the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccines in the State. 

In a statement to CBS News, ATC accepts the fault. They regret and apologize for the inconvenience caused to the recipients. They added that the company is being advised that there will be no danger from the expired Pfizer vaccine they have received. 

It was also reported through an email to the state health department that the Pfizer vaccines were kept for a very long period in the freezer. The vaccines stayed in the freezer to sustain their effectiveness of vaccines. The ATC later realized the expiry of vaccines, as these were kept for too long in the freezer.  

Since the vaccines have expired, one cannot guarantee the efficacy and efficiency of the vaccines against the covid-19 infection. All the recipients of the expired dose are being traced. An email was also sent to them announcing the bizarre incident. They were advised to get vaccinated again. 

People are angry over the incident. They are concerned that the mistake was identified after five days. An expired vaccine was being administered to people for five days without notice. 

Currently, the authorities are trying to track down the recipients who received the expired dose to get the covid-19 shot again. 

The New York State’s Governor Andrew Cuomo had recently eased up many covid-19 restrictions as about 70% of the population had already received their first shot of covid-19 vaccine. He called it a momentous day while announcing the relaxation in covid-19 guidelines. Soon after, the mistake was brought to light.

According to some sources, the vendor looking after the covid-19 vaccination programs at New York’s Times Square has been replaced right after this incident. 

As per the reports from Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the New York city has vaccinated 70% of the population with at least a single dose. About 61.6% of the New York’s residents are completely vaccinated for the covid-19 infection.