Vaccine dosage about to be measured out | covid19.nih.gov/
Vaccine dosage about to be measured out | covid19.nih.gov/
A Georgia COVID "vaccine choice" group recently said this past weekend that a report about children in Iowa receiving the incorrect COVID vaccine dose isn't the first time they've heard of such a thing.
Georgia Coalition for Vaccine Choice, in its Saturday, Nov. 27, Facebook post, referred to a New York Daily News article that MercyOne in Urbandale confirmed in a statement that children who participated in a mass vaccination event got the wrong dose. The Daily News referred to Des Moines Register news story the previous Wednesday that reported 107 children received the incorrect dose.
The hospital promptly contacted families of all the children, according to the Register news story.
"This is twice that we've heard about this mix-up," Georgia Coalition for Vaccine Choice said in its Facebook post. "Makes us wonder if it's happened more."
The group did not elaborate about the second instance they'd heard of but reports of children receiving the incorrect COVID vaccine dosage have turned up in other parts of the country over the past few weeks. These include reports in California, Virginia and Maryland.
MercyOne reported in a statement that the children, all under age 12, who participated at the mass vaccination on Nov. 20 in Urbandale received 20 micrograms of the COVID vaccine, KWQC said in it Friday, Nov. 26, news story. The children should have received the prescribed 10-microgram dose of the Pfizer vaccine. What the children received was still less than the adult dosage of 30 micrograms.
KWQC reported that the higher dosage could bring on more pronounced side effects such as mild fever, arm soreness and fatigue.
MercyOne is "implementing procedures to ensure a similar incident does not happen again," the hospital's statement said, according to the Register. "MercyOne strongly believes in the safety and efficacy of all COVID-19 vaccines available to eligible age groups."
The MercyOne incident isn't the first time higher-than-recommended COVID vaccine doses were reported administered in Iowa, according to the Register news story.
A nurse, who has since been fire, provided almost 80 Iowa State Penitentiary inmates in Fort Madison received about six times the recommended dose of Pfizer this past April. The inmates reported intensified side effects but none were hospitalized.
Alerts Sign-up