Germany: Nurse swaps Pfizer vaccine with saline to hide her fault

A nurse in Germany has admitted to swapping coronavirus vaccine for a saline solution in six cases after she dropped a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The nurse is now under investigation after she confessed to the crime to a colleague, who then raised the issue on Sunday.

When she accidentally dropped a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the nurse wanted to quickly hide the fault instead of informing the authorities. To do so, she swapped the vaccine for saline water and administered the same to six people.

Authorities are now urging 200 people who were administered the dose at the German Red Cross vaccination centre to come forward. These 200 people will be tested for antibodies to determine who were the six people wrongly administered.

"The woman said the reason for her action was to avoid having to inform anyone about the dropped vial," a statement read.

It is standard practice for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine to be diluted with saline before it is administered, and it was the nurse's role to prepare the jabs when she accidentally dropped one of the little bottles, wasting its contents.