China News Service, June 7th. According to a comprehensive report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from December 2020 to mid-May 2022, about 82.1 million doses of new crown vaccines were discarded by pharmacies and federal agencies across the United States. .
Data map: Children are vaccinated at the National Children's Hospital in Washington, USA.
According to NBC's report on the 6th, among the discarded vaccines, the pharmacy chain CVS wasted nearly 11.8 million doses, followed by Walmart, with about 10 million doses thrown away.
In addition, Oklahoma discarded 28% of the nearly 4 million doses and Alaska discarded 27% of the 1 million doses.
Some of the wasted vaccines expired on pharmacy shelves before they could be used, while others were scrapped due to power outages or broken freezers, the report said.
Still others are wasted when an entire vial of vaccine is opened and no one gets the remaining doses within a day.
U.S. health officials and pharmacies say it's the leading cause of vaccine waste.
Some also said that more vaccines were ordered than needed.
Sheila Shenoy, an infectious disease expert at the Yale University School of Medicine, said, "This is a huge loss for epidemic control, especially when millions of people around the world don't even have access to the first dose of the vaccine."