Moderna vaccines – Jay L Clendenin / Los Angeles Time
While the vaccination campaign against the Covid-19 finally seems to take off, a banal incident can still seize the mechanics … A truck carrying 145,000 doses of the anti-Covid vaccine from Moderna, intended for the regions of the South of France, broke down Wednesday evening, delaying delivery scheduled for this weekend by a few days, we learned on Friday.
Thursday morning, the wholesalers responsible for distributing the doses between pharmacies in four regions were warned by Public Health France that “following a vehicle breakdown yesterday [mercredi] evening “, the agencies served by the logistician Alloga” could not be delivered today [jeudi] “.
Moderna consulted “to rule on the fate of these doses”
The email was accompanied by a list of 73 warehouses located in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, New Aquitaine, Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, which were to receive a total of 145,500 doses of vaccine.
In a second message sent Thursday evening, Public Health France adds that the delivery “could not be made tomorrow [vendredi] “, Because the breakdown and the repair” led to a temperature excursion “, and Moderna was consulted” to rule on the fate of these doses “. A doubt finally raised in a third email this Friday noon: the incident “has no impact on the vaccines”, which will be delivered to wholesalers on Monday.
“An unacceptable delay”
For pharmacies, it will be “at best on June 1”, indicated in a press release the FSPF, the first union in the profession, denouncing “an unacceptable delay”, with “disastrous” consequences for pharmacies, but also liberal doctors ” forced to cancel all appointments made with their patients ”.
When contacted, the Ministry of Health puts this “classic delivery hazard” into perspective, observing that “doses are not lost and deliveries are resumed” and stressing that, in other regions, “the vast majority of pharmacies were delivered as planned. “.