Illinois public health officials said as of Feb. 10, 526 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been wasted so far statewide. That is, less than 1 percent of all vaccines administered statewide.
Sometimes waste is caused by a broken vial or syringe. In other cases, vaccines have been extracted but not administered, or vials have been opened and not all doses have been administered inside.
Although only a small percentage of 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 affect the operation.
“No vaccine should be wasted,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Many times the dose is missed because we just didn’t plan effectively enough.”
Recommends that once supply is available, officials should increase the distribution of vaccines to a 24- to 7-day operation, such as a fast-food restaurant, especially to help essential workers who may not have free time to vaccinate. -during the day. . The Chicago native urged public health authorities to make sure the systems were in place to have people waiting for extra doses so they don’t end up getting lost.
“Every dose that is wasted is a dose that can save someone’s life,” Dr. Benjamin said. He said that even if a couple of doses end up in the trash, that’s worrisome. “These are two people who either didn’t get their first dose or their second dose and in the end it can save their lives.”
I-Team data research found minimal waste so far across the region, from less than 200 wasted doses in Chicago to two wasted doses in Kane County due to malfunctioning ‘needle. DuPage County reports that less than 57 doses have been missed. So far, not a single dose has been wasted in Kendall County. In all, less than one-hundredth of all doses have been ruled out statewide.
North of suburban Lake County, public health officials have started a mass vaccination site at the county fairgrounds where 600 people are vaccinated daily. So far, Lake County officials said 67 doses have been wasted across the county; less than 1% of the total they have received. They said they kept a “hot list” of nearby eligible people who want the vaccine to minimize waste at the end of the day.
“Managing the vaccine is a major challenge,” said Mark Pfister, executive director of the Lake County Department of Health. “The last thing we want is to waste any vaccine. After all, because it’s a fragile resource, but also a limited resource.”
In DuPage County, a new mass vaccination site has been designed at the fairgrounds to help increase vaccine administration. County officials tell the I-Team that they maintain a waiting list of vaccine candidates to minimize waste and hope that more doses will be available soon to help frustrated residents seeking scarce appointments.
“We have a lot of procedures in place to make sure we control inventory so we don’t end up in the position that you have extra doses,” said Chris Hoff, community health director for DuPage Heath. “Because every dose is a dose that can go into someone’s arm.”
Neither Will County nor Cook County officials responded to requests for information from the I-Team about their vaccine residue data. Robert Davies, emergency response coordinator for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, said his Modern batches have zero net waste and actually had 88 doses more than they expected. County officials cannot calculate the net waste from their Pfizer assignment at this time. Sangamon County officials said only one dose was wasted because a needle was broken in the last dose of a road.
Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health analyzed by the I-Team show that as of Feb. 15, state officials have administered 73.7 percent of the vaccine doses assigned to Illinois. Northwestern University Transportation Center director and logistics expert Hani Mahmassani said the relatively slow deployment of the state is part of the reason for the seemingly minimal waste so far. He added that the situation may change as the distribution spreads to more places.
“This, of course, will help increase the speed with which we vaccinate people, using the product, but on the other hand, it also reduces waste control,” Mahmassani said. So far, this has not been at least a visible history of waste, but rather of inefficiency. “
“This has been a bit rocky, you know, it hasn’t been what you would have wanted. Part of it has to do, I think, with just one situation and frankly with a distribution system that didn’t really exist in this country,” he said. said Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago School of Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University
Public health experts said that without this national distribution plan, states and local jurisdictions would have to follow it alone, with varying success. Experts pointed out that while 526 vaccine vials were swept away, it is a fraction of what state officials have received, representing 526 loved ones, neighbors or friends who may not have been inoculated yet. There are 526 people who can continue their struggle just to get an appointment.
Team I has filed Freedom of Information Act requests from state and Chicago officials seeking answers on how each statewide jurisdiction manages and tracks waste. They will continue to update the story as they learn more about how this vital resource is tracked.
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