MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Health released new findings from its investigation of the Shelby County Health Department during a news conference on Monday.
For weeks, the state has been combing through records, searching for answer after finding thousands of wasted or unused doses.
During the news conference Monday, Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey said in all 2,510 vaccine doses were wasted in Shelby County, dating back to the beginning of February.
Officials said the doses that were given out had not expired.
“Because of the exhaustive assessment by local, state, federal and industry partners, we can confidently reassure all recipients of vaccine at Shelby County site that the doses received were stable and effective,” Piercey said.
They also found several factors that led to the mismanagement including “suboptimal and unusual pharmacy operations, a lack of standard operating procedures for storage and handling of vaccine, insufficient and disorganized recordkeeping and a deficient process for management of soon-to-be expired doses.”
Piercey said the conclusions come from a thorough investigation involving local, state and federal partners. She said investigators from the Centers for Disease Control left Shelby County last week with a new protocol in place for vaccine management, even though the County has been stripped of COVID-19 vaccine distribution privileges in favor of the city of Memphis.
Piercey said other investigations continue, like potential theft by a volunteer at the Pipkin Building and two vaccines given to children at the Appling location. Piercey said they still don’t have any information on who those children were, which provides another example of how Shelby County failed in its record-keeping.
“I am not sure they’ll ever be identified,” she said. “So far with the city of Memphis the process seems to have been fixed and we don’t have any issues we know of right now.”
A timeline released by the state showed even during the last week of February, once the county was already under state investigation, they still let dozens more doses expire, bringing the total to more than 2,500.
The update Monday comes as Dr. Alisa Haushalter steps down from her leadership role at the county health department. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris named Dr. Lasonya Harris Hall as an interim replacement.
An official with the Shelby County Health Department released the following statement:
The Shelby County Health Department has worked collaboratively with the Tennessee Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify all factors that may have contributed to the loss or waste of vaccine.
We welcome the announcement that vaccine remained stable from the storage in the pharmacy to administration in the community.
The Shelby County Health Department remains committed to continuously improving our services to meet the public health needs of Shelby County.
Shelby County Health Dept.
