Mother and Daughter, 3, Mistakenly Given COVID Vaccines Instead of Flu Shots

A Canadian mother has said she and her 3-year-old daughter were mistakenly given adult doses of the COVID-19 vaccine instead of flu shots.

Jenna Bardarson, of Brandon in the Canadian province Manitoba, had booked her annual flu shot for herself and her daughter, Dali, at the Keystone Centre on November 24, according to reports from CBC and The Canadian Press.

But she said instead of getting the expected flu shots, the pair were instead given the adult dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Bardarson told CBC: "We went in there to get our flu shots, and instead of getting our flu shots they gave us both adult Pfizer vaccines."

After the doses were given, a healthcare provider told Bardarson about the error that had happened at the Keystone Centre, which also operates as one of the province's COVID-19 vaccination sites.

Bardarson told CBC: "I was concerned about...my daughter as we were starting to have side-effects and stuff. I really was kind of angry and wanted to speak to someone."

She further told The Canadian Press: "I was shocked. I didn't know what to say."

Pfizer developed a COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years old, which involves two injections, given three weeks apart, and has a smaller dose than those for adults.

An approved vaccine for COVID-19 has not been developed for children aged under 5 years old as yet.

Bardarson told CBC she and her daughter suffered from fevers and headaches while Dali started to vomit in the days after she received the vaccine.

The mother had already received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and had not been due for her booster until January.

Bardarson said she did not want the experience to stop others from taking up the vaccine, but warned parents to ask questions about the jabs they were set to receive.

"If you are going in and taking your child or even yourself in just a flu shot...double-check with your health-care provider or whoever is doing it, just make sure they have the right medication," she told CBC.

Manitoba Health and Seniors Care told Newsweek in a statement: "Manitoba Health and Seniors Care is aware of this incident and has investigated.

"On Nov. 24 a woman and her three-year-old child were mistakenly given the adult dose of Pfizer vaccine instead of the flu shot.

"Staff from Prairie Mountain Health have reached out to the client, and further discussed the matter as well as provided her with an update on the investigation.

It continued: "Medication errors, including things such as issuing the wrong dose or the wrong medication, are rare, but they do occur. In this case, the patient (parent) was immediately informed of the error and provided information about the risks, which in this case was low.

"Patient safety is a critical aspect of all health care services in Manitoba. We are constantly reviewing our processes to ensure that our systems support our staff in preventing errors.

"In this case, as with any other error in the healthcare system, our team reviewed the existing processes to make adjustments that would help avoid a similar error from occurring in the future."

Newsweek has contacted Bardarson for comment.