What Happens To COVID-19 Vaccines When They're Not Used? All You Need To Know

The entire world has been waiting for an effective vaccine ever since the novel coronavirus outbreak stuck in December 2019 and now more than a year later when the vaccine is out, there are reports that many doses are getting wasted. The obvious question arises here: Why and how is such a precious commodity been put to waste?

Close to 5,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been wasted in some states since the vaccination drive began on January 16, data from five states suggests. This with at least one – Tripura – reporting the losses to be more than the 10% threshold that the government has identified as possibly unavoidable due to the scale of the drive.

covid-19 vaccine

Why the wastage?

The wastage have largely been due to vaccinators not finding enough recipients after opening vials, which need to be used up within four hours. The problem is particularly hard to avoid since the two vaccines approved in India for use come in vials of 10 or 20 doses.

Medical experts say strict guidelines around vaccine eligibility are causing surplus doses to be discarded.?Complicating logistics, both the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines require storage in ulta-cold temperatures, and must be used or thrown out within a few hours after a thawed vial has been opened.

Additionally, excess doses of vaccines are being sent to healthcare facilities. On doing some research, we found out it is not the excess number of vaccines being sent, it is the less than expected turnout, that's the problem.

PTI

So, one certain reason for the excess vaccine supplies at health care facilities, is because it's "very common" for people to miss their scheduled dose.

“So far, 1,623 or 11% of the total vaccine doses were wasted as many beneficiaries were not available during vaccination and droplets fall while shifting it to syringes. Another thing is that we need to use one vial within four hours after which it is of no use,” said Dr Kallol Roy, Tripura’s immunisation officer.

What happens to the unused vaccine?

When vaccines are not stored correctly, they stop working effectively. Their potency is affected when they are stored outside of the correct temperature range.?

Once the potency of a vaccine is lost, it does not return, and the vaccine effectively becomes spoiled and useless.If the vaccine is ineffective, it can lead to a whole host of issues, including the patient not being fully protected against the disease the vaccine is being administered to prevent.?

AFP

Vaccines are highly temperature-sensitive – especially live vaccines, which are negatively affected when the temperature is too high.

Is there a solution?

Authorities addressed the problem of wastage to some degree by allowing vaccinators to call in people who were not scheduled to get doses on a particular day,?helping increase turnout to compensate for hesitancy.?But, since January 16, only about 55 people have turned up for every 100 selected and invited for a dose during every session.?On Thursday, this number was – on an average – 49 out of every 100 in the close 500,000 vaccinations that took place.?

Some hospitals have come up with solutions for vaccine waste by sending shot reminders or drawing up waiting lists to have patients on standby for potential extra doses.?

AFP

"They're really getting flexible and trying to stretch the supply as best they can and avoid any kind of waste, because a vaccine in an arm is always going to be better than a vaccine in a trash can," a medical expert said on the condition of anonymity.