Walgreens Store Injects People With Saline Instead of COVID Vaccine in Mix-Up: Company

Jack Phillips
By Jack Phillips
April 19, 2021US News
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Walgreens Store Injects People With Saline Instead of COVID Vaccine in Mix-Up: Company
A sign about the COVID-19 vaccine is displayed on the window of a Walgreens in San Antonio, Texas, on March 29, 2021. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)

Employees at a Walgreens in North Carolina injected people with saline rather than a vaccine against the CCP virus in a mix-up, the company confirmed.

A spokesperson for Walgreens told local media outlets that a “limited number” received saline at its Monroe location, and those who were affected had been informed about the mistake.

“We are investigating what happened and have taken immediate steps to review our procedures with the location to prevent this from occurring again,” the company said in a statement to local media over the weekend. It will not affect recipients’ second dose, the firm added. “These patients will later receive their second dose within the appropriate time frame,” the company added.

One patient, Lisa Strawn, told WCCB in Charlotte that she was told a pharmacist accidentally did not mix the vaccine, meaning the saline was administered instead.

“I asked the guy, I said, ‘How did you figure out that we only got saline?'” she told WCCB. “And he said, ‘Well at 5:00 when she called me and said she had a lot of vaccine leftover, what was she to do with it?’ and he said ‘You shouldn’t have any vaccine left over,’ so that’s how they discovered it.”

It’s not clear how many recipients got saline instead of the vaccine.

“I just thought it was important that people know, just be careful. You know, check behind them,” Strawn added.

The Epoch Times has contacted the company for comment.

In March, a Kroger location in Virginia injected people with empty syringes instead of giving them the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials with Kroger said they initially thought people who got the vaccine received saline but those syringes were empty.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that saline injections are used to provide electrolytes and hydration. However, there are warnings from the FDA associated with saline injections.

“The administration of intravenous solutions can cause fluid and/or solute overload resulting in dilution of serum electrolyte concentrations, overhydration, congested states or pulmonary edema,” according to the FDA in a report, adding that there is a “risk of solute overload causing congested states with peripheral and pulmonary edema.”

The report adds: “Solutions containing sodium ions should be used with great care, if at all, in patients with congestive heart failure, severe renal insufficiency, and in clinical states in which there is sodium retention with edema. In patients with diminished renal function, administration of solutions containing sodium ions may result in sodium retention.”

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.

From The Epoch Times

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