Both Walgreens (WBA) and CVS (CVS) have wasted over 100,000 COVID vaccine doses, but the reason for the squandered medicine doesn’t seem clear.
In a report obtained by Kaiser Health News, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded more than 182,800 wasted doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of late March, only three months into the U.S. push to get America vaccinated.
The report indicated the CVS was responsible for nearly half of the wasted vaccine doses, while Walgreens comprised about 21% of the vaccine doses that were thrown away. They have combined to waste over 128,000 doses.
Overall, the CDC report suggests that together CVS and Walgreens have wasted more COVID shot doses than all states, U.S. territories, and federal agencies put together, KHN said.
While COVID vaccine waste is normal due to the fragility of the drug and the strict temperature requirements of the doses, the massive rate at which Walgreens and CVS have thrown away the vaccine is unclear.
The CDC’s report did not provide details as to why so much of the vaccine was wasted by the drug store and pharmacy retailers, but some have pointed to the roll-out of the COVID shot in the early days, NBC News said. CVS and Walgreens were some of the first inoculators to provide the COVID vaccine at long-term care facilities to residents and staff.
CVS told the news outlet that “nearly all” of its reported vaccine waste occurred during this time, while Walgreens didn’t specify how many doses were wasted during this timeframe of vaccinations.
But in the big picture, the waste is not significant. As of March 30, the U.S. delivered about 189.5 million doses and administered 147.6 million doses, including 7.7 million for long-term care facilities, according to the CDC, as reported by NBC News.
CDC spokesperson Kate Fowlie told KHN about the vaccine waste, “A higher percentage of the overall wastage would not be unexpected, particularly in an early vaccination effort that spanned thousands of locations.”
However, wasted vaccine doses are not something to take lightly, as Dr.Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at the City University of New York, told NBC News, the federal government is footing the bill. He called it is the equivalent of "throwing [taxpayer] money down the chute.”
Neither CVS nor Walgreens pays for the COVID vaccines, as the government provides them to the retailers as well as other vaccination providers.
Shares of Walgreens were tradina t $53.56 as of 9:35 a.m. EDT, up 46 cents or 0.87% while shares of CVS were trading at $77.26, up 86 cents of 1.13% at the same time.
Syringes with doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine await recipients at a vaccination site at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza on March 11, 2021 in Los Angeles, California Photo: AFP / Patrick T. FALLON
