Forty-two people expecting to receive the COVID-19 vaccine instead were given the antibody used to treat infections, the West Virginia National Guard said Thursday.
The Guard said the affected individuals arrived at a Boone County clinic to get the Moderna vaccine but accidentally were given the Regeneron antibody, per Fox News.
The antibody recipients were not at risk of any harm, according to medical experts with the Joint Interagency Task Force, which coordinates the state's vaccination efforts.
"The moment that we were notified of what happened, we acted right away to correct it, and we immediately reviewed and strengthened our protocols to enhance our distribution process to prevent this from happening again," Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, said in a press release.
The errors, which came to light Wednesday, occurred at a clinic hosted by the Boone County Health Department. All of the people who received the wrong injection were being contacted, according to the release.
President Donald Trump praised Regeneron for helping to cure him of COVID-19 after he contracted the virus in November.
The Food and Drug Administration then approved emergency use of the experimental treatment, which involves monoclonal antibodies or manufactured copies of antibodies created by the human body to help fight infections.
"The products administered are antibodies that fight COVID-19," Dr. Clay Marsh, the state's COVID-19 czar, said in the statement. "While this injection is not harmful, it was substituted for the vaccine. But this occurrence provides our leadership team an important opportunity to review and improve the safety and process of vaccination for each West Virginian."
The Guard said no other vaccine shipments were affected, and the task force had reviewed and strengthened all vaccine-related protocols.
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