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President Donald Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs is throwing away the additional coronavirus vaccine found in Pfizer vials designed to deliver five inoculations.
Why?
“Inventory tracking.”
Just a day after doctors and nurses began to inject Americans with the long-awaited coronavirus vaccine, reports began to flow that many vials, which contain five injections, had enough for one or two more. Two more injections from a five-shot vial is literally 40% more, meaning up to 40% more Americans could be protected from the deadly disease sooner than expected.
With a low vaccine inventory and expected delays after President Donald Trump transferred the purchase of millions of additional doses to Pfizer, the additional vaccine is literally a lifeline.
Except at President Donald Trump’s Department of Veterans Affairs.
An internal memo obtained by Radio.com (formerly CBS Radio) reveals that the VA “is considering throwing out additional doses of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer vials that have arrived overfilled, despite guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration to use all doses during a public health emergency. “
Veterans Affairs officials say they “have argued that using the extra doses could jeopardize future vaccine allocations.”
“VA officials don’t want medical staff to administer more than the five doses per vial, and any extra doses should be ‘thrown away,’ according to a memo obtained by Connecting Vets, which was sent to pharmacy managers at the Veterans Health Administration and others in the department Thursday morning.
But the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates vaccines, has publicly ordered medical professionals to use all available vaccines.
“CDC requires strict inventory monitoring of this product,” the VA memo reads. “Taking extra doses will make the data questionable.”
“Sending what appears to be inaccurate data to CDC may jeopardize VA’s ability to secure additional product allowances in the future,” adds Jennifer L. Zacher.
Nearly 4,000 Americans died from COVID-19 yesterday alone. More than 310,000 Americans have already been killed by the coronavirus.
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