Freezer power outage forces emergency distribution of 850 vaccine doses in Northern California

A power failure in Northern California on Monday resulted in county officials being forced to distribute more than 800 doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on an emergency basis.

The Mendocino Voice reported that employees at the Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center discovered that a freezer storing the county’s entire supply of COVID-19 vaccines, roughly 850 doses, lost power Monday morning.

Doses of the vaccine were immediately given to nursing home and hospital staff as well as members of the general public who heard about the distribution via word of mouth and lined up outside the building to receive the shots.

County health officials told the Voice that those who received the vaccine also were given cards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating their vaccination status, and would be contacted to receive a second dose in the weeks ahead.

Officials added that a traffic incident prevented doses of the vaccine from being transported to the nearby Howard Memorial Hospital.

News of the freezer failure in California comes just days after a pharmacist in Wisconsin was arrested and accused of intentionally removing doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from freezer storage due to fears resulting from conspiracy theories.

In Washington, D.C., this week, a grocery store pharmacist made headlines after offering doses of the Moderna vaccine to a couple shopping in the store to avoid letting them expire.