BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (NewsNation Now) — Instead of receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, 42 people in West Virginia received the Regeneron antibody treatment, according to the West Virginia National Guard.
“The moment that we were notified of what happened, we acted right away to correct it, and we immediately reviewed and strengthened our protocols to enhance our distribution process to prevent this from happening again,” said Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard. “I remain incredibly proud of all that our team has accomplished. Our number one goal has been to save lives, and, as we continue to ramp up distribution of the vaccine all across the state, we continue to save more and more lives every single day.”
Medical experts with the joint interagency task force said they don’t believe these individuals are at risk. Those individuals are now being offered the real vaccine.
The error occurred at the Boone County Health Department.
“The product administered are antibodies that fight COVID-19,” said Dr. Clay Marsh, the state’s COVID-19 Czar. “In fact, this product was the same one that was administered to President Trump when he became infected. While this injection is not harmful, it was substituted for the vaccine. But this occurrence provides our leadership team an important opportunity to review and improve the safety and process of vaccination for each West Virginian.”
All vaccine related protocols in the area have since been reviewed.