Walgreens mistakenly gave family COVID-19 vaccine instead of flu shot: children showed side effects

Joshua and Alexandra Price say they and their two children were mistakenly vaccinated against COVID-19 a week ago instead of a flu shot at their local Walgreens pharmacy. After being vaccinated, they developed side effects. Writes about it CNN.

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The Prices took their 4- and 5-year-old children to a Walgreens in Evansville, Indiana, on Oct. 4 for their annual vaccinations. About 90 minutes later, the pharmacist called and said they had made a mistake—the entire family had been given adult doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“When they called us saying they had made a mistake and given the wrong vaccinations, I was just shocked,” said Alexandra Price. “I immediately asked what the children should do.”

While Alexandra and Joshua, already fully vaccinated since April last year, were not worried about themselves, they were more worried about 5-year-old Sophia and 4-year-old Lucas.

“Lucas felt sick before we even got back from Walgreens,” Alexandra noted.

“He felt lethargic and had already developed a fever,” Joshua added.

The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is approved for people 16 years of age and older, although it is approved for emergency use in people 12 to 15 years of age. Pfizer announced in a tweet on October 7 that it has filed a formal request for an emergency authorization to use a lower dosage vaccine for children aged 5-11.

“They will probably do well,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “The only difference is that they received three times the dose that is being tested in clinical trials.”

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“They will be monitored, but they should be fine,” Hotez said. “There is now a lot of data on children 5 years and older.”

He added that the additional dose of Alexandra and Joshua's vaccine is similar to the booster dose.

Walgreens has provided proof of vaccination so the family can show healthcare professionals in the event of an emergency. But Price said Walgreens was hesitant.

“They were going to get their legal department involved and didn’t want to give us those cards, so we got our own lawyer,” Alexandra said.

Joshua explained that the cards were important evidence for doctors if the children continued to get sick. Walgreens handed them the cards the next day, he said.

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Walgreens spokesman Chris Lathan released a statement saying that due to privacy laws, he is unable to comment on a specific event.

“Instances like these are rare and Walgreens takes these matters very seriously,” the statement said. — In the event of any error, our primary concern is the well-being of our patients. Our multi-step vaccination procedure includes several safety checks to minimize the potential for human error, and we have discussed this process with our pharmacy staff to prevent such occurrences.”

Walgreens does not comment on how the vaccine confusion could have occurred.

Symptoms did worsen for Sophia and Lucas, and the parents took the children to a cardiologist.

“Children experienced a number of side effects after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Symptoms the children are experiencing include fever, body aches, cough, headaches and nausea, according to a statement released by the family's attorney, Dan Tooley. “Children 4 and 5 years old are being treated by a pediatric cardiologist for tachycardia and high blood pressure.”

Alexandra said that Lucas got better and Sofia's condition worsened.

Alexandra and Joshua themselves continue to slowly recover from symptoms that developed shortly after vaccination. These symptoms include high blood pressure, fever, chest pain, and headaches.

“It’s been over a week and I still have high blood pressure and chest pain,” Joshua laments. He said that the attending physician is monitoring his condition.

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