CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A WCNC Charlotte Defenders investigation found out about leftover, even wasted doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
It’s a precious resource and in limited supply right now, but not everyone who signs up is showing up to get one. And since the vaccines have to be used within a certain window of time, local health officials said they’re doing whatever they can not to waste the leftover doses.
However, it’s raising questions about who is next in line to get the leftover doses.
Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris said she got a COVID-19 vaccine, so they wouldn’t waste the leftover dose, which is exactly what happened in a neighboring county.
“My arm was available, so I have been vaccinated,” said Harris.
Harris acknowledged she got vaccinated even though it wasn’t her turn.
“To be perfectly honest, I'm not one of those healthcare providers that really needed to be vaccinated in the first round,” said Harris. “I happened to be in the office late one afternoon when we had a couple of vaccines leftover.”
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She’s not alone. Local vaccine providers said they’ve dealt with leftover doses. However, representatives from Atrium Health, Novant Health, and the Mecklenburg County Health Department said none of the leftover doses have gone to waste.
“To date, we have not yet had to throw out a dose,” said Dr. Meg Sullivan, the medical director for the Mecklenburg County Department of Public Health. “That's something we try to do, we try to find somebody who can take the dose rather than throw it away.”
The goal is to avoid what happened in Gaston County where doses were thrown away after a vaccine clinic at the farmer’s market on Friday.
County spokesman Adam Gaub said the event was so successful they invited more people to come in to get vaccinated who were scheduled for the following week.
In all, health officials vaccinated 898 people that day. However, by the end of the day, Gaub said they had no one available to finish up the last vial of the Moderna vaccine, which had a total of 10 doses in the vial.
“We had two of those doses we had to get rid of because we had utilized the other eight in the vial,” said Gaub.
Gaub said they tried to get people vaccinated with the leftovers, but no one was available in time. Of the two vaccines, Pfizer has stricter requirements for storage and use, which includes having to thaw it first. However, Gaub said the Moderna vaccine also goes bad after six hours, and he said they have a narrow group of people who are eligible to receive it.
“We can't just go, ‘Oh well, let's go stick a janitor’ or somebody like that,” said Gaub.
In Mecklenburg County, the providers all described similar practices for handling any leftover doses, which includes closely monitoring the number of people who don’t show up and having a waitlist of others to replace them.
“Call those folks and get them vaccinated,” said Dr. Gary Little, chief medical officer for Atrium Health.
“We sort of know what our traditional no show rate is,” said Dr. Sid Fletcher, the Chief Clinical Officer at Novant Health.
In the next vaccine clinic, Gaub said they’ll try to keep track of people not showing up throughout the day, to avoid a repeat of having to throw away doses.
The Mecklenburg County Health Department said their staff who administer the vaccine are also eligible to receive it, so most of the time they can use any leftover doses on them.