On Sunday night, the California Department of Public Health’s issued a recommendation to pause administering Moderna vaccines from lot 41L20A which has been associated with an unusually high number of allergic reactions. It has been revealed that two separate mass vaccination clinics in Mendocino County used the specific Moderna batch CDPH has alerted health officials about.
The County of the Mendocino facilitated one clinic on January 7 held at the Redwood Empire Fair Groups in Ukiah, where 100 doses of the Moderna batch were administered.
A press release released by the County of Mendocino stated that “no adverse reactions occurred” due to the County’s vaccine event. The press released quoted Mendocino County’s Vaccine Coordinator Adrienne Thompson saying, “County Staff will be contacting all 100 individuals that received a vaccine with this lot number to alter them of the recall.”
As reported earlier, 100 other Mendocino County residents along the coast were inoculated with the recalled batch on Sunday, January 17, during a mass vaccine event hosted by Adventist Health Mendocino Coast.
Adventist Health’s Public Information Officer Cici Winiger emphasized that “none of the patients who received the Moderna vaccine on the Mendocino Coast have had adverse reactions.”
To assure the safety of patients, Winiger said Adventist Health staff is “reaching out to those patients to checks on their well-being. There have not been any complications or severe reactions reported at this time.”
On Monday morning, initial information garnered from County of Mendocino’s CEO Carmel Angelo, and Vaccine Coordinator Adrienne Thompson stated that the county’s stock of COVID-19 vaccines did not include the recalled Moderna batch. The County of Mendocino issued a press release stating this.
Then, at approximately 9:00 p.m. Monday, the County sent out a corrected press release that revealed the information regarding the January 7 administration of the recalled batch at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds.
Embedded in the corrected press release was a series of statements that shed light on why information regarding the administration of the Moderna batch in Mendocino County came from multiple entities.
Regarding the tracking of vaccines, the press release asserted that “Mendocino County Public Health is responsible only for vaccine allotments distributed by the State to Public Health.”
The press release explains that various entities in the county (Public Health, Adventist Health, Pharmacies, Indian Health Clinics) receive vaccinations and are responsible to “administer, track, and report all vaccine data to the state.”
Revealing the opaque nature of vaccine distribution oversight, Mendocino County’s Vaccine Coordinator Adrienne Thompson is quoted saying, “Mendocino County does not have access to their vaccine information or their lot numbers. However, these other vaccine providers are continuing to review their Moderna inventory to compare their lot numbers against the state-identified batch in question.”
Based on this information, it is unclear how many total residents of Mendocino County were inoculated with Moderna’s lot 41L20A or whether there are more doses of the batch in Mendocino County.
Earlier Chapters:
- [UPDATED] Mendocino Public Health Determines One Hundred Doses of Discontinued Moderna Batch Were Administered at Mass Vaccination Event
- Approximately 100 Mendocino Coast Residents Administered Batch of Moderna Vaccines That Has Been Discontinued for Higher Than Usual Allergic Reactions; No Adverse Reactions Reported Locally
- After ‘Higher Than Usual’ Allergic Reactions, Officials Suggest Pausing the Use of Specific COVID-19 Vaccine Batch
There were two adverse reactions in gualala that I know of.. are you sure we didn’t get them?
If you know specific people that are willing to have a conversation, I would love an opportunity to speak with them about those reactions.