The losses are immense. Since March 1, at least 15 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been thrown away in the United States, according to American media NBC on Wednesday, citing information obtained from American health authorities.
There are several reasons for these losses. A dose can be discarded when its expiry date has passed, or in the event of a dilution error, refrigeration problems or even when the vials are cracked … In addition, when a vial of vaccine containing several doses is open, other doses should be used within a few hours. For lack of takers, they sometimes end up in the trash. While some vendors have reported several thousand doses thrown away at once, the most common reports were of only four wasted doses at a time, according to NBC.
A number probably underestimated
US states and pharmacies, which administer the vaccines, reported the data to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the country’s main federal public health agency. But this number is probably underestimated since several states or federal agencies are not included in these data, also reports NBC.
371 million doses administered
Of the 15 million doses subsequently thrown away, most were thrown away during the summer months, from June to August, notes NBC. This figure represents a small fraction of the total number of doses distributed in the country since December (nearly 444 million), as well as the number of doses actually administered (371 million).
But anti-Covid vaccination remains very unequal in the world, and the race for doses is a reality, many countries have so far only been able to vaccinate a small part of their population, especially in Africa. “It’s a fairness issue,” Tim Doran, professor of public health at York University, told NBC. “You have very rich countries, with access to the vaccine, which simply throw away doses.”
The United States announced in early August that it had sent foreign countries 110 million doses of vaccine, and began to distribute at the end of August part of the donation of 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine promised to poor countries.