Illinois public health officials said that as of Feb. 10, 526 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been lost statewide to date. That’s less than 1 percent of all vaccines administered statewide.
Sometimes the waste is caused by a broken vial or syringe. In other cases, vaccines have been taken but not administered, or vials have been opened and have not been able to administer all doses in them.
While only a small percentage of the doses administered in Illinois have ended up in the trash, public health experts warned that without careful planning, delays and more potentially wasted vaccines could plague surgery.
“No vaccine should be lost,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public Health Association. “Often times the dose has been wasted because we just haven’t planned effectively enough.”
He recommends that once supplies are available, officials should ramp up the distribution of vaccines to a 24-hour operation, such as a drive-thru fast food restaurant, especially to help essential workers who may not be able to take time off during the day to get a vaccine. . The Chicago resident urged public health authorities to ensure systems are in place to have people on standby for extra doses so that they are not wasted.
“Any dose that is wasted is one that can save a person’s life,” said Dr. Benjamin. He said that even if a few doses end up in the trash, that’s a concern. “That’s two people who didn’t get their first dose or their second dose and it could save their lives at the end of the day.”
The I-Team’s data investigation so far revealed minimal wastage across the region, from less than 200 wasted doses in Chicago to two wasted doses in Kane County due to a needle failure. DuPage County reports that less than 57 doses have been wasted. Not a single dose has been wasted in Kendall County so far. In total, less than one-hundredth of a percent of all doses are discarded statewide.
In the northern suburbs of Lake County, public health officials have begun a mass vaccination site in the county fairground where they vaccinate 600 vaccinated people daily. So far, Lake County officials said 67 doses have been lost nationwide; less than 1 percent of the total they received. They said they had a “hotlist” of nearby eligible people who want the vaccine to produce as little waste as possible at the end of the day.
“Dealing with the vaccine is a major challenge,” said Mark Pfister, director of the Lake County health department. “The last thing we want is for a vaccine to be wasted. Ultimately, it’s about knowing it’s a fragile resource, but also a limited resource.”
In DuPage County, a new mass fairground vaccination site is designed to help increase vaccine delivery. County officials tell I-Team they are keeping a waiting list of vaccine candidates to minimize waste and hope more doses will soon be available to help frustrated residents looking for scarce appointments.
“We have a lot of procedures to make sure we control the supply so we don’t get in the position of getting you extra doses,” said Chris Hoff, director of the Community Health division at DuPage Heath. “Because every dose is a dose that can go into someone’s arm.”
Neither Will County nor Cook County officials have responded to requests from I-Team for information about their vaccine waste data. Robert Davies, Emergency Response Coordinator for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District said their Moderna lots have no net waste and in fact contain 88 more doses than they expected. County officials are currently unable to calculate the net waste of their Pfizer allocation. Sangamon County officials said only one dose was lost there because a needle broke in the last dose of a vial.
Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health analyzed by the I-Team shows that as of Feb. 15, state officials administered 73.7 percent of the vaccine doses assigned to Illinois. Northwestern University Transportation Center director and logistics expert Hani Mahmassani said the state’s relatively slow rollout is part of the reason for the seemingly minimal waste to date. He added that as distribution expands to more sites, the situation may change.
“Of course that will help speed up the speed at which we vaccinate people and use the product, but on the other hand it also reduces waste control,” Mahmassani said. So far this has not been at least a visible story of waste, but rather a story of inefficiency. “
“This has been a bit rocky, you know, it’s not what you would have wanted. Part of it, I think, has to do with just one situation, and frankly a distribution system that didn’t really exist in this country.” said Dr. Archana Chatterjee, Dean of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University
Public health experts said states and local jurisdictions should do without that national distribution plan alone, with varying degrees of success. Experts stressed that while 526 vaccine vials being discarded is a fraction of what government officials received, it represents 526 loved ones, neighbors, or friends who may still not have been vaccinated. It’s 526 people who may continue their struggle to get an appointment.
The I-Team has submitted requests for the Freedom of Information Act to state and Chicago officials seeking answers on how each statewide jurisdiction manages and detects waste. They will continue to update the story as they learn more about how this vital resource is tracked.
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