ANTIOCH, Calif. — Fourteen children received an incorrect dose of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine over the weekend at a Sutter Health pediatric clinic here, the health system reported.
Instead of receiving the appropriate dose for 5 to 11-year-olds, the affected kids — who were all vaccinated on Saturday — received about two-thirds of a dose meant for a 12-year-old, a spokesperson said. The doses contained an incorrect amount of diluent, a diluting agent that is added to vaccines on-site the same day they’re administered.
“As soon as we learned of this, we contacted the parents and advised them of CDC guidance in this situation,” said Dr. Jimmy Hu, chair of the Sutter Health COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, in a statement. “The safety of our patients is our top priority, and we immediately reviewed our processes to help make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children who receive vaccines with the wrong amount of diluent may experience more side effects, including arm soreness, fatigue and a fever.
Sutter did not respond to questions about how the wrong amount of diluent was added to the doses Saturday or how many children were vaccinated at the clinic total that day.
Earlier this month, more than 100 children at a Virginia pharmacy received an incorrect dose of the vaccine when health officials gave them one-tenth of the formulation of the vaccine intended for adults, the Charlotte Observer reported, even though CDC has said that adult and children dosages are “not interchangeable.”
Meanwhile in Maryland, another 98 kids received the wrong dosage at a school clinic over the weekend after the vaccines were over-diluted, officials said.
Children between 5 and 11 were the latest group to become eligible for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at the start of November. So far in California, roughly 3% of the age group — about 110,000 kids — have received their first dose, according to the state health department.
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