Nearly 900 Expired COVID Vaccine Doses Administered At New York City Site
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Nearly 900 people in New York City are being advised to get vaccinated again after receiving expired doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Fifteen-year-old Dante Swift had to get his COVID vaccine three times.
"I'm feel more sick, definitely more tired. My arm hurts a lot more than it did the last time," he told CBS2's Ali Bauman in an exclusive interview.
Dante got his second, and what he thought would be final, dose of the Pfizer shot on June 6 at the Times Square location run by ATC Vaccination Services, one of the city's many vax distributors.
Then on Friday, the family got an email from the health department informing them Dante got an expired dose.
"It says that the vaccine was in the freezer for too long," mother Gabrielle Napolitano Swift said.
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It went on to say since the city cannot guarantee the effectiveness of an expired dose, Dante should get another shot.
"The kid's only 15. That's a lot of medication to put in a young body," Napolitano Swift.
Dante is one of 899 people receiving the same notice after getting the Pfizer shot at the Times Square location between June 5-10.
"It's not like it was one day that they messed up. It was five days," Napolitano Swift said.
In a statement, ATC Vaccination Services told CBS2 in part, "We apologize for the inconvenience ... and want people first and foremost to know that we have been advised that there is no danger from the vaccine they received."
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The family told Bauman after all that, they did not want to come back to Times Square for Dante's third shot, so they tried going to another vaccine location in the city.
"They looked his name up. They said, 'It says he's done. I don't know what we can do,'" Napolitano Swift said.
So they had to go back to Times Square, and now Dante has to wait another two weeks for full immunity.
"I was gonna hang out with my friends, but now we're probably going to have to wait a little longer," he said.
The city says it is still sending emails and letters and making phone calls to make sure everyone affected is aware.
