Illinois public health officials said as of Feb. 10, 526 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have so far been wasted at the state level. This represents less than 1% of all state-administered vaccines.
Sometimes the waste is caused by a broken vial or syringe. In other cases, the vaccines were withdrawn but not administered, or the vials were opened and could not administer all doses inside.
While only a small percentage of doses administered in Illinois have reached the landfill, public health experts have warned that without careful planning, delays and more potentially wasted vaccines could affect the operation.
“No vaccine should be lost,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “Many times when the dose goes missing it’s because we didn’t plan effectively enough.”
He recommends that with the available supply, officials increase the distribution of vaccines to a 24-7 operation, such as a fast-food restaurant, especially to help essential workers who may not be able to take leave to get a vaccine during the day. . The Chicago native urged public health officials to make sure the systems are in place to keep people waiting for extra doses so they don’t get wasted.
“Every wasted dose is a dose that could save someone’s life,” said Dr. Benjamin. He said that even if a few doses end up in the trash, it is a concern. “These are two people who either didn’t get the first dose or the second dose, and at the end of the day, it can save their lives.”
The I-Team data investigation has 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 a needle failure. DuPage County reports less than 57 wasted doses. To date, no dose has been wasted in Kendall County. In total, less than one-hundredth of a percentage of all state-wide doses were eliminated.
In suburban Lake County, public health officials have started a mass vaccination site at the county fair, where 600 people are vaccinated daily. So far, Lake County officials have said 67 doses have been wasted at the county level; less than 1 percent of the total they received. They said they keep a “hot list” of nearby eligible people who want the vaccine to minimize waste at the end of the day.
“Vaccine handling is a major challenge,” said Mark Pfister, executive director of the Lake County Health Department. “The last thing we want is to waste any vaccine. At the end of the day, because it’s a fragile resource, but also a limited resource.”
In DuPage County, a new mass vaccination site for fairs is designed to help increase vaccine administration. County officials tell Team I that they keep a waiting list of vaccine candidates to minimize waste and hope more doses will be available soon to help frustrated residents looking for rare appointments.
“We have a lot of procedures in place to make sure we monitor the inventory so we don’t end up in extra doses,” said Chris Hoff, director of the Community Health Department at DuPage Heath. “Because every dose is a dose that can go into someone’s arm.”
Neither Will County nor Cook County officials responded to I-Team requests for information about their vaccine waste data. Robert Davies, emergency response coordinator for the Champaign-Urbana public health district, said their Moderna batches have zero net waste and are actually 88 doses higher than expected. County officials are unable to calculate the net waste from their Pfizer allocation at this time. Sangamon County officials said a single dose was wasted there because a needle broke in the last dose of a vial.
Data from the Illinois Department of Public Health, analyzed by I-Team, show that as of Feb. 15, state officials have administered 73.7 percent of the vaccine doses that have been allocated to Illinois. Northwestern University Transportation Center Director and logistics expert Hani Mahmassani said the relatively slow launch of the state is part of the apparent reason for the minimal waste so far. He added that the situation may change as distribution spreads across multiple sites.
“This, of course, will help increase the rate at which we vaccinate people using the product, but it will also reduce waste control,” Mahmassani said. So far, this has not been at least a visible waste story, but rather one of inefficiency. “
“It was a bit rocky, you know, it wasn’t what you wanted. Part of that has to do, I think, with just one situation and, honestly, with a distribution system that doesn’t really exist in this country, “said Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago School of Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University
Public health experts have said that without this national distribution plan, states and local jurisdictions must do it alone, with varying success. Experts pointed out that although 526 ampoules of vaccine that are thrown in the trash is a fraction of what state officials received, it represents 526 loved ones, neighbors or friends who have not yet been inoculated. There are 526 people who can continue their fight just to get an appointment.
Team I has filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act for state and Chicago officials seeking answers on how each state-level jurisdiction manages and tracks waste. They will continue to update the story as they learn more about how this vital resource is pursued.
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