Health Clinic Gave 14 Kids Wrong Dose of COVID Vaccine; 2 Report Possible Side Effects

Over the weekend, 14 children were administered improper dosage of a COVID-19 vaccine at a Northern California pediatric health clinic, the Associated Press reported. Sutter Health said in a statement that 14 vaccinations given at the clinic in Antioch had "an incorrect" amount of diluent, which is used to dilute the concentrated form of the vaccines, KGO-TV reported. At least two kids were given double the recommended dose. "As soon as we learned this, we contacted parents," Dr. Jimmy Chu, chair of Sutter Health's COVID-19 task force, said in the statement. "And we immediately reviewed our processes to help make sure this doesn't happen again." Denise Iserloth told the station that the clinic notified her about 10 hours after her children, ages 8 and 11, had received double the recommended dose for pediatrics. Both children were home sick Monday with bad stomachaches, she said. "There has been nothing clarified as to how this happened to our children and the other 12 children involved and it is unacceptable and negligent, completely negligent on their part," Iserloth told the station. "They absolutely failed my children and the other 12 children involved," she said. A similar event occurred at a Maryland elementary school when 98 students received an overdiluted Pfizer vaccine at a school-based clinic. The children need to be revaccinated. "We apologize for the error, and we are offering another opportunity for the children to be revaccinated," Dr. James Bridgers, acting Montgomery County health officer, said in a statement. "We are confident that this is an isolated situation and staff have already received additional training on reconstituting and administering pediatric doses." Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was approved for children age 5 to 11. The vaccine is administered as a two-shot series with a lower dosage compared to the one administered to those age 12 and older. For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, told KGO-TV that children were given higher vaccine doses in clinical trials and showed no ill effects. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients who receive a vaccine with an incorrect dose may experience more arm soreness, fatigue, headache, or a fever. "We would have assumed that there was more in place to prevent this from happening, but obviously at this place there wasn't," Iserloth's husband, Shawn Iserloth, said.

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