Family Accuses Walgreens Of Giving COVID-19 Vaccine To Their Two Kids Under 12 Instead Of The Flu Shot
The vaccine hasn't been approved for children under 12.
Jonathan Weiss / Pasquale Senatore / Shutterstock.com A family in Evansville, Indiana, thought they had gotten their annual flu shot when Walgreens’ workers gave them a call saying there had been a mix up.
The family of four are now speaking out about the mistake and calling for the pharmacy chain to be held accountable.
The Evansville family were given the COVID-19 vaccine instead of the flu shot.
The family of four, which included a 4-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter, were shocked by the mistake and rapidly rushed to a pediatric cardiologist to find out if their children would be OK.
The 4 and 5-year-olds are currently ill, suffering the side effects of receiving adult doses of the vaccine.
“Walgreens called me to say there was a mix-up, we did not receive the flu shot,” said Alexandra Price, the mother of the two children.
“And I’m like well what did we get? And he was like we got the Covid19 shot, And instantly I was like, well what does this mean for my kids...?”
The COVID-19 vaccine has not been approved for children under 12.
Vaccines are known to have side effects as the body creates a defense against the new protein in their bodies, but COVID-19 hasn’t been approved for children yet.
Pfizer-BioNTech has recently announced that their data proves that the vaccine is safe and effective in children aged 5 to 11 — the only problem is that they’ve been testing at one-third of the dose given to adolescents and adults.
The cardiologist told the parents that the girl was experiencing high blood pressure and the boy had tachycardia — a heart rate higher than normal.
Alexandra has written about the incident on Facebook, saying “We were told 'sorry....a mistake was made. YOU BET YOUR A-- A MISTAKE WAS MADE!!!!! [The couple's son] is running a fever....highest was 100.5....it's lowered since ibuprofen to 99.9! In all seriousness.....recommendations on a lawyer?????!!!"
Personal injury lawyer Daniel Tuley is representing the Price family, and while there hasn’t been a lawsuit filed against Walgreens thus far, his office responded to an inquiry by saying he would release a statement.
Someone on Alexandra’s post had asked if she and her husband had already been vaccinated, which she confirmed, saying the third shot “is like our booster shot."
Walgreens responded to the vaccine mix up.
"Patient safety is our top priority, and due to privacy laws, we cannot comment on specific patient events," a Walgreens spokeswoman said in a statement to the Courier & Press after being approached about the incident.
"But generally speaking, such instances are rare and Walgreens takes these matters very seriously,” she said.
“In the event of any error, our first concern is always our patients’ well-being. Our multi-step vaccination procedure includes several safety checks to minimize the chance of human error and we have reviewed this process with our pharmacy staff in order to prevent such occurrences."
Unfortunately for the two children who have fallen ill, those safety measures failed to prevent human error.
Since the incident occurred, however, Alexandra has been steadily updating people from her Facebook on the children’s conditions.
As of Monday, WFIE reported that the Prices say the 4-year-old boy has been sick with a fever and a cough and that the 5-year-old girl has developed a fever.
So far, no lawsuit has been filed, but the lawyer has advised the Price family to stop answering questions about the incident in preparation for a press release.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.