Thousands of COVID vaccine doses wasted in NY

NEW YORK - New data exclusively obtained by Fox 5 News shows that 167,359 COVID vaccine doses had to be thrown away this past year. 

New York Assemblyman John McDonald, who is also a pharmacist, explained that during those early days of vaccine distribution there was less of a strategy. 

"We were all under pressure to get everybody with their first couple of doses and it was a race," McDonald said. "Now we're more strategic."

At the beginning of the year, there was a crush of New Yorkers desperate to receive the vaccine. Since then, almost 30 million doses have been administered but the effort has not been without some waste.

Data released by the state Health Department, as part of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, shows that while there were days when very few vaccine doses were discarded, there were also days when they were thrown away by the thousands. For example on April 12, FEMA was forced to throw away over 3,500 vaccine doses at Medgar Evers College because one of their storage refrigerators broke. 

"Ensuring the safe distribution of vaccinations is our utmost priority. Unfortunately a batch of vaccinations went bad due to a refrigeration issue at two locations (Brooklyn and Yonkers) and we had to dispose of them due to safety and effectiveness concerns," a FEMA spokesperson wrote in a statement. "Steps were taken to ensure this issue was addressed and did not occur again, and operations at these sites were not directly impacted.  In total, more than 288,000 doses were administered at both sites."   

Bill Hammond, a health policy expert at the Empire Center, said waste like this was bound to happen. 

"I think some level of waste was kind of inevitable, because of the complexity of the job, the number of different players who were involved, the fact that the doses do expire," Hammond said.

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On June 5, the most doses by far had to be thrown away by the Oneida County Health Department. Almost 11,000 doses were wasted due to lack of demand, according to the Oneida County health director. While no one in the region was deprived of the shot, the doses expired before they could be administered. 

"New York State's vaccine rollout was flawed from the onset, failing to capitalize off the high initial public demand that would have resulted in many more people being vaccinated," Oneida County Director of Health Dr. Daniel W. Gilmore said in a statement. "The eligibility restrictions instituted at the beginning, stymied the supply, caused confusion and fostered a reluctance to be vaccinated. That unfortunately led to a situation in Oneida County where we were forced to dispose of thousands of doses of expired vaccine. While not one single county resident who wanted a shot was deprived of being vaccinated, the supply well exceeded the demand at that time."

When COVID vaccines were first rolled out, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo created strict eligibility requirements, limiting who could receive a jab to older adults and those with underlying health conditions. 

"If you remember, there were a couple of scandals where people who weren't technically eligible, but who worked in the healthcare system, like CEOS and lawyers, were getting the shots," Hammond said. "And that became public. The governor got angry about it and scolded people. He then threatened to fine hospitals and other providers if they gave doses to ineligible people."

The state Health Department said this large volume of vaccines at the Oneida County Health Department had been stored in the refrigerator, rather than the freezer and the vaccine had passed its "allowable limit." The Moderna vaccine can only be stored at refrigerator temperatures for 30 days. 

"The county was educated by NYSDOH regional office staff on inventory management and proper storage and handling procedures to prevent this from happening again," a spokesperson at the Health Department said. 

There were specific days, however, where larger quantities of vaccine doses were dumped at facilities around the state. 

• June 7: Orange County Health Department wasted 2,515 doses
• June 15: Northwell North Shore threw out 1,254 vaccine doses
• June 18: Dutchess County Health Department had to waste 810 doses
• July 6: Ulster County Department of Health had to dump 1,014 doses
• July 21: NuHealth Nassau University Med Center had to throw out 1,000 doses
• Aug. 5: David Axelrod Institute in Albany, 1,170 doses were wasted
• Aug. 10: Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson, 1,128 doses were trashed

Overall, 15,001 Johnson and Johnson shots, 89,732 Moderna shots and 62,626 Pfizer shots were thrown away. 

Yet McDonald agreed that particularly for upstate regions, demand quickly tapered off in the late spring and summer months, forcing many to dump their extra product when it expired. 

"It wasn't done by ignorance or incompetence, it was a matter of trying to meet a demand that just didn't materialize," McDonald said. "And by the way, back then the vaccine had a much shorter expiration period."

The state Health Department said that moving forward, it has systems in place to cut down on as much waste as possible. 

"New York State continues to do everything possible to get New Yorkers vaccinated, with over 90% of adults having received at least one vaccine dose," a Health Department spokesperson said. "Since May of 2021, we have allowed responsible wastage and continue to urge administrators not to miss any opportunities to vaccinate individuals. Additionally, the Department has assembled a dedicated COVID-19 Vaccine Order Team to review provider administration and inventory prior to approving orders. This prevents providers from over-ordering vaccine, further reducing wastage that could be caused by vaccine expiration."