Outdated vaccines given on reserve

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This article was published 11/02/2022 (1347 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government says nurses inadvertently administered outdated COVID-19 vaccines to residents of a remote northern Manitoba reserve because a shipment of doses was mislabelled.

The mistake, which affected 26 people, was revealed by Hubert Watt, chief of God’s Lake First Nation in a news release issued Friday.

“It takes time for some people to feel comfortable to receive a vaccine. It is my hope this news does not increase hesitancy,” Watt said.

In December, a shipment of Pfizer vaccines was sent to the fly-in reserve, 550 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. The box was mislabelled. As a result, the doses were kept in a freezer at the nursing station, for 20 days, which was too long, Indigenous Services Canada acknowledged as it apologized for the incident.

“The shipment received from the province was mislabelled by the distributor, which led to incorrect storage,” wrote spokeswoman Megan MacLean, who did not name the distributor.

The department informed the band on Feb. 4 that 26 residents had received improperly stored doses that Pfizer said were likely no longer effective — but not dangerous to a person’s health.

In addition, the chief said teenagers had received a third shot despite not being eligible for the booster. No one from the band could be reached Friday and it’s unclear how many teens had been vaccinated or whether they received some of the outdated doses.

Watt said the shots were given between Dec. 19 and Jan. 9. He said the band was notified on Feb. 4, but Ottawa said local nurses discovered the problem during the week of Jan. 17.

“ISC has communicated with the distributor and they have immediately removed labels from any future shipments,” wrote MacLean.

She said everyone will be offered another dose.

She said the department is investigating the incident to prevent it from happening again, and that no other nursing station run by the federal department has had the same issue.

“I’m concerned to know guidelines were not followed when it came to properly storing the vaccine,” wrote northern Grand Chief Garrison Settee.

“The fact that teenagers received a booster shot before they were eligible is alarming.”

A Manitoba government spokesperson said more information was needed to verify Ottawa’s claim the shipment had been mislabelled. The province is responsible for shipping vaccines to communities.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca