CVS, Walgreens wasted extra vaccine than many states

Vaccine waste could increase in the coming weeks as officials change tactics to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations, public health experts say.

“I think we are coming to a place where in order to continue to be successful with vaccination we have to tolerate waste,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, Chief Medical Officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. People unwilling to travel to a mass vaccination site may see a family doctor or a smaller rural pharmacy that may not be able to use every dose in an open vial, he said.

Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, said worries about waste shouldn’t beat getting shot in the arms.

“If someone is around, you have to vaccinate them,” she said. “In our efforts not to waste a dose, we may miss the opportunity to vaccinate because there aren’t 15 or 10 people in a row.”

CDC numbers do not match status data

The federal government gathers information on vaccine waste through the federal system VTrckS, which manages orders and deliveries, and Tiberius, a platform of the Ministry of Health and Human Services, which oversees distribution. VTrckS can share data with state and local vaccination registries that keep track of who received a shot. However, some states rely on manual data entry, Hannan said.

The 15 states not included in the CDC data are Alaska, California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas. The District of Columbia is also missing.

From these jurisdictions, 11 provided data to KHN: Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and DC

Most of them reported minimal waste to KHN: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and DC combined recorded only 1,090 wasted cans.

In other cases the numbers are more significant. On March 19, the Maryland Department of Health announced it was aware of 3,175 wasted doses.

Texas had any state’s most wasted doses in either the CDC data or the data states provided to KHN. The record showed that 9,229 cans were wasted on March 26, placing it third in total waste behind CVS and Walgreens.