Healthcare company Kaiser Permanente has notified 3,900 people that they have received the wrong dose amount for their Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, CBS local reported.
Those who were vaccinated between October 25 and December 10 at the Walnut Creek Medical Center are believed to be given between 0.01 and 0.04 ml less than the recommended (.30 ml) dose.
Kaiser reportedly released an apology: “We are continuously monitoring so this does not happen again. We sincerely apologize for any concern or inconvenience this may cause for those patients we are contacting,” a statement read.
This is not the first incident of patients receiving the wrong dosage amount for their COVID-19 vaccines. Another incident reported in the Bay Area saw kids ages 5 to 11 receive twice the proper dose amount of their Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in November. There was also another incident last March when patients in Oakland, California were reportedly given only 0.2 ml of their Pfizer vaccine as opposed to the recommended 0.3 ml dosage. The incident was quickly resolved, but not before 4,300 people were improperly vaccinated.
“Once we became aware of this issue, we immediately consulted with experts in infectious diseases and vaccine science and reviewed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control. All experts agreed the difference between the recommended dose and the dose an individual may have received was not significant and not likely to reduce their protection against COVID-19,” Kaiser said in the statement cited by the media.
Notifying patients of any dosage errors, consulting state officials, as well as filing a report to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is required by CDC.