MILLIONS OF DOSES OF COVID VACCINE WASTED IN US AS WORLD GOES WANTING

Sun 17 October 2021:

Despite shortages in many places of the world, the United States is wasting millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses, according to the Guradian.

According to one analysis of CDC data, at least 15 million doses were discarded in the United States between March and September. Between December and July, 1 million doses were wasted in ten states, according to a separate analysis.

States continue to throw away unused shots. Even as a deadly fourth wave of the virus swept the state, Louisiana has thrown out 224,000 unused doses of the Covid vaccinations, a figure that has nearly tripled since the end of July. Some of the dosages were lost because vials were opened and not finished, but more than 20,000 shots just expired.

Thousands of dosages are said to be thrown away every day in Wisconsin. More than 65,000 dosages have been thrown in Alabama, with nearly 200,000 in Tennessee.

The wasted doses are a small percentage of the total number of injections given out in these states; in Louisiana, for example, 4.4 million doses were successfully provided.

However, the news comes as millions of people await their first dosages around the world. As of July, only 1% of the people in low-income nations had had their first injections, compared to more than half of those in a few high-income countries.

Many of the doses that were thrown away came from pharmacies. In May, two pharmacy chains discarded nearly three-quarters of all thrown dosages, accounting for more than all US states, territories, and federal agencies combined. Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, and Rite Aid now account for at least 7.6 million discarded doses.

FILE PHOTO

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