---
title: "Unfortunate Woman Mistakenly Got SIX Doses of COVID Vaccine"
description: "An unlucky young woman was mistakenly given six doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Massa, Italy."
date: "2021-05-10"
modified: "2021-05-10"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/woman-six-doses-covid-vaccine"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "coroanvirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "pfizer"
  - "vaccine"
  - "vaccines"
---

# Unfortunate Woman Mistakenly Got SIX Doses of COVID Vaccine

![An unlucky young woman was mistakenly given six doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Massa, Italy.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/woman-six-doses-covid-vaccine.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_(2020)_C.jpg" target="\_blank"\>U.S. Secretary of Defense\</a\>\</em\>*

An incredibly unlucky woman was mistakenly given six doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Massa, Italy, [*CBS News* reports](<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/italy-covid-vaccine-woman-six-doses-distracted-nurse-pfizer-shot-tuscany/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=118359202>).

The unfortunate incident was reportedly the result of a distracted nurse.

Fortunately, the 23-year-old woman didn't experience any serious side effects after receiving all six doses all at once.

"This person at this time will certainly not have side effects," Antonella Vicenti, director of infectious diseases at Noa Hospital in Massa, Italy, said, as quoted by *CBS*.

"The patient did not have fever and did not have any pain except for pain at the inoculation site, nor any other manifestations," she added. "She was a bit frightened, thus we preferred to keep her here until this morning."

It's still unclear if the woman will see any effects on her antibody levels and her immune response to the coronavirus. She's now being held at the hospital to determine if she still needs her second — or seventh? — scheduled dose.

The nurse was a trainee, [according to *Euronews*](<https://www.euronews.com/2021/05/10/italian-woman-mistakenly-given-six-doses-of-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine>), and administered the six doses when she wasn't paying attention.

"This is something that should never happen," Tommaso Bellandi, director of patient security for the northwest Tuscany health authority, said. "Unfortunately, due to our limits as human beings, as well as organizational limits, these things can happen."

Instead of receiving a diluted dose, including the sixth of a single Pfizer vial, the woman was injected with the entire undiluted vial.

"\[The nurse\] thought that the dilution had taken place," Bellandi said, according to *CBS*. "They are both transparent liquids of the same density. Unfortunately, this contributed to the error."

It's still unclear whether the young woman now has superpowers allowing her to destroy the coronavirus with lasers coming out of her eyes.

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)