KING COUNTY, Wash. — Like millions before them, Vivek Maheshwari and his wife Harshita Saxena were eager to get the second COVID vaccine shots done and stop worrying. So they showed up at Valley Medical Clinic, they signed up, lined up, and answered a few questions.
“They asked us ‘OK what are you here for, Moderna for second dose?’ and we confirmed yes,” said Maheshwari. “They asked us ‘can we show the vaccine card to us?’ Of course, why not? And we showed the vaccine card to them showing we already got Moderna.”'
They gave their cards to a nurse at Valley Medical Center, and they mentioned they had both received the Moderna vaccine for the first dose.
“She just put the shot in us, both of us and she just put a sticker, a sticker on the COVID vaccine card,” Maheshwari said.
Within hours, the couple said were both sick with multiple reactions. They looked up various reactions for the vaccines, and they figured it could last a day or two. But they say four days later they were still too sick to get out of bed.
“(Harshita) was so weak,” he said. “I was shivering, I had fever, I had body pain, the next two three days were really horrible.”
It was then they checked their vaccine cards, because they were planning to use them to travel.
“We had a plan to visit India because my mother-in-law has some medical issues we have to take care of them and we were planning that,” Saxena said.
Their vaccine cards clearly showed vaccine mixing. One said Moderna, the other said Pfizer. The CDC specifically says the COVID-19 vaccines are “not interchangeable,” adding, “the safety and efficacy of mixed-products have not been evaluated.”
“It said Pfizer in the second dose, Saxena said. “We both were shocked, we were like, didn’t know what to do.”
Mixing vaccines is being tested in the UK now, researchers say it’s too early to tell if mixing causes more reactions. But a UW Medical doctor told KIRO-7, “If a vaccine site runs out of one vaccine or the other, the CDC is says it’s ok to mix doses because the vaccines are so similar. There is a much higher risk of getting or spreading COVID if you’re not fully vaccinated,” said Dr. Deborah L. Fuller, with UW Medicine.
The doctor also recommends double checking. Vivek and Harshita agree.
“They should have a separate line,” said Maheshwari. “Separate rooms, separate cues, this is for Pfizer this is for Moderna so to eliminate these kinds of mistakes.”
Valley Medical Center sent this response to KIRO-7 News: “We sincerely regret the distress this rare instance may have caused and are conducting a thorough investigation to ensure the process in which a mixed vaccine dose occurred in error does not happen again. To date, Valley Medical Center has given over 59,000 vaccines in total and is committed to providing safe and efficient care to all eligible patients who come to us for COVID vaccination,” the statement said.