85 million doses of J&J Vaccines in the trash when will the C-Level "Get It" ???
The FDA ordered Johnson & Johnson to throw out 60 million COVID-19 vaccine doses worth $600 MILLION at their Baltimore plant that already had several violations.
The violations included workers who failed to shower or change clothes, mold in the facility and poor disinfection of equipment. This is HACCP 101!!
How do we as the safety community get C Level executives to understand the importance of doing things right as opposed allowing violations to continue and fester.
They knew they had violations when there was a mix up in March that caused 15millon vaccine doses to be discarded.
When I see this happen to companies like J&J when all eyes are on them during this crisis I can't believe it!
85 million doses in the garbage. That's enough to vaccinate almost a third of the United States !
Has anyone been successful overcoming this corporate mindset of dealing with safety issues after tragedy occurs rather than recognizing problems and taking corrective actions in a preemptive strike?
In the words of the immortal Joan Rivers....
"Can we talk???"
Comments (5)
I don't know the full story, but I'm sure the hyper competitive vaccine race led them to cut some corners. Sad to say I'm not surprised - I think management sometimes needs to slow down and take a step back. Evaluate their safety process when things are most chaotic
I have enough experience in EHS to know that safety is 3rd at best when it comes to workers, however; Consumer safety should ALWAYS be a priority. I understand that there is an insane amount of pressure to produce a safe and effective vaccine but we all know that cutting corners is not the answer. To Adam's point, verifying that the processes and facilities of your contractors is within your company's safety/cleanliness standard is vital. In my opinion, you cannot put a dollar amount on trust and social responsibility.
This is a catalyst for some great discussion. I think this highlights the importance of vetting your contractors. You need to ensure they take quality, health, and safety as seriously (or more seriously) than you do. It also underscores the importance of auditing and inspecting your facilities so issues like this do not go unchecked.
Until the day comes when $ penalty violations cost more than cutting corners actions like this will continue.