An Indiana family of four claims they were “mistakenly” administered COVID shots instead of flu vaccines at a local Walgreens pharmacy — not the first time such a mix-up has been reported at the pharmacy chain.
Alexandra and Joshua Price of Evansville, Indiana, told a local NBC affiliate that they and their two young children, ages of four and five, were scheduled for their annual flu shots at Walgreens on October 4, but were instead administered Pfizer jabs. While the vaccines are only authorized for emergency use in adolescents 12 and older, both young children — a boy and a girl — were given adult doses.
Per the outlet:
The family says they left the pharmacy thinking they had received their flu shots, but a Walgreens employee later called them and said they had made a mistake.
“Walgreens called me to say there was a mix up, we did not receive the flu shot,” said Alexandra. “And I’m like well what did we get? And he was like we got the Covid-19 shot. And instantly I was like, well what does this mean for my kids…?”
The family’s attorney, Daniel Tuley, who specializes in personal injuries, stated that following the incident, the children have been examined by a pediatric cardiologist, and the family was told both are showing signs of heart issues. The girl was having a high blood pressure, and the boy was diagnosed with a tachycardia.
The family also said that both of their children became ill after receiving the jabs, including having fever, body aches, cough, headaches, and nausea. The younger child has been experiencing a fever and a cough for a week, as of this Monday.
“Their prognosis is uncertain at this point in time, and their medical treatment providers continue to monitor their conditions,” Tuley said.
As the “mix-up” was discovered and reported to the family, the pharmacy, according to Tuley, at first refused to comply and provide the Prices with the vaccination cards, but issued them the following day.
Tuley shared the vaccination cards with the outlet (see here and here). The cards show that mom and dad, one born in 1992, and the other in 1986, as well as their children, born in 2016 and in 2017, are not inoculated against COVID with their first dose of Pfizer. The outlet did not mention if the parents had received any COVID vaccines previously.
Responding to repeated requests for comments, Walgreens issued a statement that declined to confirm the Price family’s charges, though nonetheless said it takes any such cases “very seriously” and blamed the incident on “human error”:
Due to privacy laws, we cannot comment on specific patient events. However, in general, such instances are rare and Walgreens takes these matters very seriously. In the event of any error, our first concern is always our patients’ well-being. Our multi-step vaccination procedure includes several safety checks to minimize the chance of human error and we have reviewed this process with our pharmacy staff in order to prevent such occurrences.
To date, despite the attorney’s involvement, the family has neither filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy nor stated if it plans to do so, per media reports.
What happened to the Price family is not the first instance of Walgreens botching the inoculation against the flu and giving COVID jabs instead.
In August, a four-year-old Maryland girl was inoculated with a Pfizer adult shot, according to a Fox News local affiliate WBFF report. Luckily for the family, the girl “suffered no major side effects” as of mid-September, per the Baltimore Sun. They family said they were not planning to file a complaint with the Maryland Board of Pharmacy, which would investigate the incident.
So far, little guidance exists for parents who find themselves in this terrible situation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that vaccination providers are “strongly encouraged” to report vaccine administration errors to the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), co-run by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Last Thursday, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech officially asked the U.S. government to allow use of their COVID shot in children ages five to 11. On September 20, Pfizer/BioNTech announced results from a Phase II/III trial in children in that age group and indicated the participants of the trials received a third of the dosage given to adults.
The FDA’s Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices has scheduled a two-day discussion for November 2-3 on whether or not to recommend the Pfizer shot to young Americans.
It has already been acknowledged by both the CDC and the FDA that the COVID shots using mRNA technology are associated with an increased risk of heart inflammation in young recipients, particularly in males.
In the meantime, despite government bodies claiming that “vaccination errors” are “extremely rare,” numerous cases are being reported. Most often, the vaccine providers jab people with a wrong second dose.
For example, in April, a New Hampshire man “accidentally” received the Pfizer jab, despite his first dose having been from Moderna.
Also in April, eight Chicagoans who were supposed to receive their second dose of the Moderna vaccine were given the Pfizer jab instead.
Also in April, a Walgreens in North Carolina gave 22 customers saline solution instead of COVID jab. The same happened to 53 people in Utah. Given the potential side effects of the COVID shots, many would probably take this type of mix-up any day.
