Unused vaccines pile up across U.S. as some regions resist
Syringes filled with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are shown, Thursday, April 15, 2021, at the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center in Jackson Memorial hospital in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Published April 16. 2021 1:24AM
Anna Edney and Drew Armstrong, Bloomberg
Many U.S. states and cities have a growing surplus of coronavirus vaccines, a sign that in some places demand is slowing before a large percentage of the population has been inoculated, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News.
The data indicates that as many as 1 in 3 doses is unused in some states. Appointments for shots often go untaken, with few people signing up.
Unused Vaccines Are Piling Up Across U.S. as Some Regions Resist Bloomberg 2 hrs ago Anna Edney and Drew Armstrong
(Bloomberg) Many U.S. states and cities have a growing surplus of Covid-19 vaccines, a sign that in some places demand is slowing before a large percentage of the population has been inoculated, according to an analysis by Bloomberg News.
The data indicate as many as one in three doses are unused in some states. Appointments for shots often go untaken, with few people signing up.
Bloomberg analyzed state and U.S. data from Monday, providing a snapshot of vaccine use before Johnson & Johnson shelved millions of shots pending federal health officials’ investigation into rare cases of blood clots. That pause will likely cause the number of unused shots to fluctuate, but will little change the comparisons of states.
Surveys focused on the health needs and priorities for people living in Central Virginia are being collected once again by Centra Health to help steer community efforts to improve resident health, especially among more vulnerable populations.
The Community Health Needs Assessment is something required of Centra every three years as a tax-exempt hospital system. It entails survey-based data collection from Centraâs catchment region â divvied into three parts that focus on the Lynchburg, Bedford and Farmville areas â thatâs wrapped into a report published at the end of the year, followed by implementation plans specific to each area.
Collaboration among community partners is a key part of the process, and the first stakeholder meetings for both the Bedford and Lynchburg groups are being held this week.