Since March, pharmacies and state governments in the U.S. have thrown out at least 15.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, NBC News reports, citing government data.
It's important to note is that this is just a "small fraction" of the 438 million doses administered in the U.S. as of Tuesday and the 111.7 million additional doses the U.S. handed off to other countries as of Aug. 3, writes NBC News.
Still, considering the U.S. "has wasted far more vaccine doses than many poorer countries have for their entire population," vaccine waste has become an "equity issue," argues Tim Doran, professor of health policy at the University of York in the United Kingdom.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"You've got a very wealthy country with good access to vaccines essentially throwing vaccine away, and a lot of vaccine away," while other countries in need remain susceptible as they await vaccination, he said.
Sharifah Sekalala, an associate professor of global health law at Britain's University of Warwick, agreed, adding that although significant waste was "inevitable" under the current model in which wealthy countries purchase doses, it's a "failure" of the system that rich countries buy their batches but must then "think about what's going to happen if they don't use them," leading to an "over-purchase" of supply. It's "really tragic" and "really problematic," she said.
A cracked vial, a freezer malfunction, or a dosage error are all reasons a vaccine might be discarded.
Meanwhile, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund has noted that it's important for vaccine providers to get shots in as many arms as possible, even if it leads to waste. Read more at NBC News.
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advicethe explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious charactersFeature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beatspeed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
