A Shoppers Drug Mart in Vaughan accidentally administered 12 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines that expired one day prior on November 16.
The Region Municipality of York's director of corporate communications, Patrick Casey, told Narcity that Public Health became aware of the incident that happened at the 9200 Weston Rd. location on November 18.
"On November 16, 2021, this Shoppers Drug Mart location administered COVID-19 vaccines between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.; during that time, staff member(s) at Shoppers Drug Mart administered 12 doses of Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech) COVID-19 vaccine that had expired the day before, on November 15, 2021," Casey confirmed.
The Shoppers Drug Mart has attempted to contact all 12 people who were injected with the expired vaccine, according to Casey.
York Region Public Health has confirmed that the expired vaccines were not harmful and were still "safe and effective" for use, according to Pfizer.
"Pfizer reports that the quality and integrity of the vaccine would not be affected in this scenario," reads the statement.
"Based on this assessment, the vaccine doses administered can be considered safe and effective against COVID-19 and re-vaccination will not be necessary."
Casey says they are working with the Shoppers Drug Mart location to ensure that there are no future errors.
"We know an incident like this can cause anxiety for many people; rest assured COVID-19 vaccines are safe, and administration errors like this are extremely rare," he said.
Shoppers Drug Marts' parent company Loblaw told Narcity, "this was an isolated incident at the store, where a vaccine was given one day after its expiry date."
"The owner took immediate action, contacting the local public health unit, who reached out to the vaccine manufacturer. Through this process, public health has confirmed there was absolutely no risk to the customers, and the dose is considered valid and effective. The store reached out to impacted patients, and has put additional processes in place to ensure this doesn't happen again."
Health Canada has a robust website with all the latest information on COVID-19 vaccines and can answer any questions you may have.
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