January 1, 2021

"His motive remains unclear. 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. Advocate Aurora Health Care Chief Medical Group Officer Jeff Bahr told reporters during a teleconference Thursday afternoon that the pharmacist deliberately removed 57 vials that held hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine from refrigeration at a Grafton medical center overnight on Dec. 24 into Dec. 25, returned them, then left them out again on the night of Dec. 25 into Saturday.... 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.... Bahr declined to comment on the pharmacist’s motive. He said the hospital system’s security protocols are sound. 'This was a situation involving a bad actor,' he said, 'as opposed to a bad process.'" 


I'll put up a poll just to demonstrate what I think is obvious:

What's more likely?
 
pollcode.com free polls

ADDED:

67 comments:

BudBrown said...
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Eleanor said...

Once could be accidental, and a conscientious pharamacist would have seen what he did and report it. This guy just put the vials back into the cold storage. And then came back the next night and did it again?

CWJ said...

Incompetence? Did he know it could not be rechilled?

Knowing that dental hygiene once required a BS degree, but is now a community college function, I can't rule out that he is simply a product of today's education system.

iowan2 said...

Bahr declined to comment on the pharmacist’s motive. He said the hospital system’s security protocols are sound. 'This was a situation involving a bad actor,' he said, 'as opposed to a bad process.'"

. 'This was a situation involving a bad actor,' he said, 'as opposed to a bad process.'

Security protocols protect against bad actors. Internal bad actors. If we could trust everyone we wouldn't have implemented "security protocols"

I bet they don't find 50 doses of fentanyl lying about. Because security protocols don't let doses out that don't have specific time and destination facts. Security protocols to protect against internal bad actors.

RMc said...
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RMc said...

Much of which we ascribe to malfeasance is actually incompetence. (And that includes me, since I would've spelled "malfeasance" wrong if it wasn't for spellcheck...)

CWJ said...

"... detectives believe..." is not the same as detective's know.

iowan2 said...

Knowing that dental hygiene once required a BS degree, but is now a community college function, I can't rule out that he is simply a product of today's education system.

Of the several pharmacists I know, getting a slot into the University of Iowa pharmacy program was as rigorous as getting into med school.

Both of those programs were easier to get into than Vet School at Iowa State

stevew said...

The pharmacist did it on purpose, for whatever daft motive that was rumbling around in his addled brain. The 'only' harm that would come from his actions was that people that thought they were vaccinated were not. What an evil, amazing plan!

Mikey NTH said...

Motive is unclear. Speculating, there are people who like drama and dislike calm and boring.

CWJ said...

"Of the several pharmacists I know, getting a slot into the University of Iowa pharmacy program was as rigorous as getting into med school."

Did he go to Iowa? Of the three pharmacists that live in my neighborhood, two are screw-ups who messed up and lost their independent practices. One's out of the business, and the last I knew the other ended up working part time for a chain. Yikes!

MayBee said...

How about this: Someone likes being a Healthcare Hero, and does not want the pandemic to end.

David Begley said...

A Creighton pharmacy grad in SE Nebraska hired some guy in VA to blow up a competitor’s pharmacy. He received a harsh sentence in federal court.

holdfast said...

Sounds like an attempt to commit bio-terrorism.

Lurker21 said...

I went with "accident," assuming most health officials right now are officious Karens who assume the worst.

I'm curious about how opinions change depending on whether the accused is described as a "pharmacist" or a "hospital worker."

A "pharmacist" is a "professional" with the cachet and status that implies. Not a doctor, to be sure, but maybe somebody you would trust more than a doctor.

"Hospital worker" implies somebody with no special training in anything and no professional ethics courses in the resume - one of "them," rather than "us."

And what happened to the word "druggist"? We say "drug store" much more often than "pharmacy," but "druggist" seems almost as dead as "apothecary." Too close to "druggie"?

And aren't pharmacists who don't work for chains (or institutions) a dying breed today?

P.S. I do remember a How It Really Happened about a "Doctor Death" who was poisoning his colleagues, so maybe I should rethink my answer.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Once could have been an accident, twice and not reporting it - deliberate.

And if a bad actor can do something like that, then "the hospital system’s security protocols" are not sound.

Lincolntf said...

Maybe the pharmacist just got a telegram from the front telling him that his son had been killed in action.

mockturtle said...

Sounds like a conscious act, to me, but in an era where incompetence reigns supreme in all spheres, that can't be ruled out.

Curious George said...

Whenever I hear "malfeasance" I think of It's a Wonderful Life.

Mr. Potter : You're worth more dead than alive! Why don't you go to the riffraff you love so much and ask them to let you have $8,000? You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail. But I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you, George. Since the state examiner is still here, as a stockholder of the Building and Loan, I'm going to swear out a warrant for your arrest. Misappropriation of funds, manipulation, malfeasance...

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Security protocols protect against bad actors. Internal bad actors. If we could trust everyone we wouldn't have implemented "security protocols"

Exactly. The issue here is probably that it never occurred to anyone that someone would sabotage the vaccine. I'm willing to bet the security protocols governing the storage and dispensing of narcotics are a lot tighter, and have to conform to state and federal regulations.

mockturtle said...

Reuters identifies a 'hospital pharmacist' but they probably don't know the difference between a pharmacist and a pharmacist's assistant and wouldn't bother to find out. The basic Who, What, When and Where of journalism have been tossed aside these days.

RMc said...

I think of It's a Wonderful Life

In my version of that movie, Mr Potter donates the $8K he stole to charity, and immediately gets killed by a wayward garbage truck. Happy ending!

roesch/voltaire said...

I suspect this is one of those pharmacists who have moral objections to distributing certain drugs to women and has some twisted understanding of how mRNA is produced and therefore believes they have the moral high ground in destroying the vaccine.

FunkyPhD said...

@Lincolntf: the telegram revealed that the pharmacist’s son died of influenza, not in action.

Fernandinande said...

Brandenburg,Steven
Inmate Image

...
20-16578 943.01(2)(d) Criminal Damage to Property (Over $2500)
20-16578 941.30(2) 2nd-Degree Recklessly Endangering Safety

Lincolntf said...

Funky: I didn't watch it this year, my memory failed me.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Perhaps the doses were earmarked for a nursing facility and our pharmacist is an "Angel of Death" type.

Tacitus said...

This does not look accidental.

We are seeing more these days of an odd variant on violence. That perpetrated not by young, feral half children but by older, experienced, careful men. Maybe women too but no case comes to mind. Las Vegas, Nashville, anthrax in the mail, this has been going on for a while now. They are hard to detect in advance, being in most cases established members of a community. They tend to work alone. They are often, unless Lizard Person crazy, patient. And much more effective. Dumb kids might try to build an explosive device but they A: don't know a damn thing, and B: look pretty suspicious buying fuel oil and fertilizer. A farmer from down the road that you've known for decades, no problem.

I'm tempted to call this Old Man's Terrorism in a nod to the Scalzi book Old Man's War.

T.Wolter

Curious George said...

Haha two different It's a Wonderful Life comments.

Kate said...

Nope with that Mr. Gower bullshit. He's not a person, he's a plant. His sole role in the film is to serve George. Without George Gower is a drunk and criminal. But he's not a person and he doesn't get credit as an actionable character.

Inga said...

Did this pharmacist want to cast shade on the efficacy of the vaccine? Why? Is he an anti vaxxer, or does he want to cast shade on anyone who believes the vaccine will be an effective end to the pandemic? Does he associate the vaccine with some political agenda? Who knows, I suppose we’ll find out motives soon enough. In the meantime, I’m glad he sits in jail.

Bob Boyd said...

Maybe he planned to reserve the spoiled doses for any lizard people that may come in for a shot.

Ken B said...

Once might be an accident and a cover up, but twice is deliberate.

Ken B said...

Third rail question. Demographics of the hospital, and the pharmacist.

mockturtle said...

Inga: Or maybe he's being paid by Pfizer?

Inga said...

“Third rail question. Demographics of the hospital, and the pharmacist.”

The hospital is in Grafton, WI. Grafton is in the very conservative Ozaukee County. Mostly white upper middle class, white collar.

BudBrown said...

Maybe they left em out accidentally. Then, oh shit, put em back. Worry about it, pull
em out again with the intent to let someone know? Get rid of them?

I wonder if there people out there who'd gladly pay some $$$ for a vial.

lonejustice said...

Hanlon's razor.

Inga said...

“Inga: Or maybe he's being paid by Pfizer?”

That thought crossed my mind too, but would Pfizer be that dumb? Seems as if the pharmacist was caught manipulating the vials pretty quickly. Plus, if people who got their vaccines only from this particular hospital pharmacy starting getting Covid, I would think it would be traced back to the batches coming out of this pharmacy easily enough.

Fernandinande said...

Demographics of the hospital, and the pharmacist.

I put a link to his picture and arrest report up above (you have to enter his last name at the site). He's white.

Bob Boyd said...

Grafton is a nest of lizard people.

Gracelea said...

Not sure where Fernandinande got the charging/booking info (at 8:24AM), but WCCA site shows an open divorce proceeding for this guy- one of the more usual triggers for going off the deep end.

Joe Smith said...

$20 he was a Trump-hating progressive.

mockturtle said...
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mockturtle said...

Thanks, Fernaninande.

Bob Boyd said...

No way Pfizer was behind this. Pfizer is run by the lizard people.

mockturtle said...

That thought crossed my mind too, but would Pfizer be that dumb?

I agree, Inga. Very unlikely. I just threw that out there as a possibility.

As with most news stories, there are more questions than answers. Was the same batch left out overnight twice? If so, why wouldn't it have been discarded after the first time?

Ice Nine said...
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Ice Nine said...

>>Blogger iowan2 said...
Of the several pharmacists I know, getting a slot into the University of Iowa pharmacy program was as rigorous as getting into med school.
Both of those programs were easier to get into than Vet School at Iowa State<<

I'm a graduate of the University of Iowa Medical School and I can authoritatively tell you that the pharmacy program statement above is not true. This is pretty well understood. But I know specifically of two same-year-as-me pre meds who had good grades but were rejected at Uof I Med and ended up going to Uof I Pharm as a second choice. One of my med school classmates didn't make the cut when he applied to med school at Iowa so handily got into pharm school and after doing well there was accepted by the med school. Your friends are wrong.

I'm quite willing however to believe that getting into vet school might be harder than getting into med school. There are 1/5th the number of vet schools in the US as med schools. It figures.

Wince said...

roesch/voltaire said...
I suspect this is one of those pharmacists who have moral objections to distributing certain drugs to women and has some twisted understanding of how mRNA is produced and therefore believes they have the moral high ground in destroying the vaccine.

Similarly, that's how people justify election fraud in their own minds.

Ken B said...

Ferd's link leads to an empty form.

Tomcc said...

What a strange story. Pharmacists are not careless people in my experience. I can think of no rational explanation; but that's just because I'm a (mostly) rational person.
When I see things like this, I ask myself: what are the chances he/she is the only one that might do such a thing?

Ken B said...

I grew up in the town with one of Canada’s few vet schools. It was very hard to get into, harder than most med schools. Very few accredited colleges.

Narayanan said...

putting them back?! is the deliberate part.

taking them out is deliberate also.

placing items in fridge in logistically inconvenient order is also stupidity deliberately cultivated.

what happened to cryonic storage being touted earlier?

Narayanan said...

@ Ken B.


Brandenburg,Steven

c'mon man - fill in name to find photo

Big Mike said...

'This was a situation involving a bad actor,' he said, 'as opposed to a bad process.'

If your process can be easily defeated by a bad actor, it is a bad process.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I'm quite willing however to believe that getting into vet school might be harder than getting into med school. There are 1/5th the number of vet schools in the US as med schools. It figures.”

But why? The Med schools have an excuse - AMA accreditation, and the AMA strictly rationed seats. They used a lot of high sounding reasons, but a lot of it no doubt, was to keep the incomes of AMA members high. Used to be the case for law schools too - except that they teach a class titled “Antitrust”. The ABA effectively lost the antitrust lawsuit against their control over law school seats. But veterinarians?

It’s an interesting dynamic. Vet schools tend to be regional. Lived for 8 years by the one in Fort. Collins, CO. It was the regional vet school for the inter mountain west. The other states helped fund it, and, in turn, got a certain number of seats every year. They are invariably in land grant universities (Colorado State University (formerly Colorado A&M) in our case). One of the great things about living around a vet school is that a lot of vet procedures are almost free. One guy I worked with got cataract surgery for his cat - his cost was for the anesthetic.

mockturtle said...

If your process can be easily defeated by a bad actor, it is a bad process.

Indeed, Big Mike!

FullMoon said...

Fernandinande said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Demographics of the hospital, and the pharmacist.

I put a link to his picture and arrest report up above (you have to enter his last name at the site). He's white.


Yep, Walter White

FullMoon said...

Intentional. This vax not the only med needing reefer. Professional not gonna leave any refrigerated med out.

Would spoiled vax cause illness, or just be ineffective?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Nancy Pelosi and Debra Messing ARE Mr. Potter.

alan markus said...

Gracelea said...
Not sure where Fernandinande got the charging/booking info (at 8:24AM), but WCCA site shows an open divorce proceeding for this guy- one of the more usual triggers for going off the deep end


Looking at the divorce case notes, I see two red flags.

1st, he (respondent) has had two lawyers withdraw. One on 7/23/20 & the other on 12/28/20.

2nd, there is an attorney acting as GAL for two minor children.

On 11/23/20 there is this: Court renders order suspending placement due to COVID.

Can't tell which party lost placement due to COVID

alan markus said...

Re my comment above about the divorce file, it is not a red flag that minor children have guardians appointed, the notable thing is that placement suspended due to COVID.

bagoh20 said...

Even if you can buy that it was accidental twice, not reporting it twice was not accidental and that made the mistake deliberate and also made it the danger it was. Reporting it would have prevented the danger.

The Godfather said...

"It's a Wonderful Life" was a great movie, but the situation here seems to be totally different. In the movie, Mr. Gower the druggist had just learned that his son had died of Covid-19 -- sorry, influenza -- and he had gotten drunk in reaction to the news. That's why he made a mistake in preparing the prescription. We can understand (not excuse, but understand) that. Later in the movie, when George is being shown what the world would have been like if he hadn't been around, we see what would have happened to Mr. Gower if the poisoned pills had been delivered.

The story about the destroyed covid vaccine doesn't (yet) have an understandable story. Until and unless we get a "Mr. Gower explanation" it's silly to speculate. Of course it was wrong, as was Mr. Gower's action; but do we understand it?

Anonymous said...

I just don't get the hysteria of the last 10 months. I recognize that the News Media hyped everything up, but people...take a breath.

Let me put this in terms that smart people can understand.

I'm in the control group. OK? I'm in the control group.

No mask. No distancing (although I don't like to get physically close to people I don't know anyway, so fine...social distancing.) I'm elderly and vulnerable! GFY.

I know this though. You scaredy cats can't keep what you have. You're too soft. You're too afraid. I think it's called 'evolution'.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Inga said...
“Third rail question. Demographics of the hospital, and the pharmacist.”
The hospital is in Grafton, WI. Grafton is in the very conservative Ozaukee County. Mostly white upper middle class, white collar.


Thank you, Inga.

Assuming that is true, it's easy to believe the "pharmacist" is a "progressive" who wanted to "kill conservatives" by giving them bad vaccine.

If you need to know why a "progressive" would want to do that, go to "social media". You're see a thousand of them willing to tell you why