Virginia Teen Claims CVS Administered Six Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine In One COVID Shot

A 17-year-old girl claims she received six doses of the Pfizer vaccine at Salem, Virginia, CVS pharmacy.

Ellaica Desdura was getting the COVID vaccine so she could travel back to the Philippines next year when the pharmacist told her to wait for 30 minutes because they gave her a “little bit stronger dose,” she told WSLS, an NBC affiliate out of Roanoke, Virginia.

When Desdura discovered she had received six times the normal doses, she told WSLS she was shocked because she had been administered the entire vial as one vial contains six doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

The Pfizer COVID vaccine is required to be administered in only two doses spaced several weeks apart.

According to records obtained by WSLS, Salem Fire and EMS responded to the CVS for “a 17-year-old female who received six times the dose of a Pfizer vaccine that they were not supposed to.”

Desdura, who was not taken to the hospital, experienced swelling in her arm, irregular heart rate, and nausea the evening that she received her shot, the news outlet reported.

She said that “I couldn’t sleep and then, I was checking my temperature it was like 98, or something like that and then it’s not really bad so after the day, the second day, I was like, I will feel tired, feel dizzy.”

Desdura is concerned that the accidental over-dosing could impact her long-term. She told WSLS, “I don’t know what the side effects will be, so that’s the one that I am really worried about.”

In a statement, CVS said in part, “We cannot comment on a specific patient without authorization. Vaccination errors are a very rare occurrence, but if they do occur, we work with the patient to notify their physician, report the incident to the appropriate regulatory agencies, and to take steps to help prevent it from occurring again.”

It is unclear if the employee that administered the shot is still employed at CVS or what specific corrective actions the pharmacy took after the incident.

The Virginia Health Department stressed to WSLS that incidents of these types are extremely rare.

However, this is not the first recent mishap with administering the COVID vaccine.

A family of four in Evansville, Indiana accused Walgreens of administering the COVID vaccine instead of the flu shot to them, including their two young children, aged 4 and 5.

In another incident, a New Hampshire man received both the Pfizer and the Moderna shot, while another man in Ohio received three doses of the COVID vaccine when he was mistaken for another man that had the same name and nearly died from the additional dose.