“And in the state of Washington, an employee at a multicare facility explained how some unused vaccines were thrown away at the end of shifts because the strict state guidelines made it difficult to vaccinate others outside the designated priority group,” the congressmen told Redfield.
“These examples are just two of many taking place across our country,” Budd and Garcia continued. “With hundreds of millions of Americans yet to be vaccinated, it’s unthinkable that unused doses are going to waste.”
The two congressmen encouraged Redfield to issue prompt new guidance on the proper disposal of the vaccines and to ensure that as many Americans are vaccinated as quickly as possible, without having to overcome unnecessary and inefficient bureaucratic obstacles.
“Reopening America should be the top priority of our government. In order to do that, we must encourage state and local officials to cut red tape and ensure that unused vaccine doses are not going to waste. We urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that more Americans are able to be vaccinated as quickly as possible.” Budd and Garcia said.
A CDC spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
The problem that prompted the letter to Redfield originated in the requirement that the vaccine doses produced by Pfizer must be kept in extremely-low-temperature refrigeration units.
State officials in New York and Washington state have issued inflexible priority groupings of individuals and the order in which they are to receive the vaccines.
Budd and Garcia pointed out to Redfield in their letter that former Health and Human Resources Secretary Alex Azar decried such disposal practices, saying, “There is no reason that states need to complete, say, vaccinating all health care providers before opening up vaccinations to older Americans or other especially vulnerable populations’ and that states should not ‘leave vaccines sitting in freezers.’”
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told NBC News recently that “this kind of thing is pretty rampant. I have personally heard stories like this from dozens of physician friends in a variety of different states. Hundreds, if not thousands, of doses are getting tossed across the country every day. It’s unbelievable.”
The vaccines are being produced by Pfizer and Moderna, with a third vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson that’s based on a different approach to preventing the CCP virus expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the near future.
President Joe Biden has set a goal of 1 million Americans being vaccinated daily, and he hopes to see 100 new vaccination centers being opened around the country as soon as possible.
But to reach what medical experts consider to be herd immunity, the United States must vaccinate at least 1.8 million individuals daily between now and the end of July.
