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THREAD: Much is being made of the issue of "vaccine wastage" in Alberta. There is a memo from AHS circulating and a clarification issued by @CMOH_Alberta and @shandro. Here's an attempt to clear up some of the confusion. / 1
This issue is neither new nor limited to Alberta. @nytimes reported on it a while back. /2 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/health/Covid-Pfizer-vaccine-extra-doses.html
Here's what we know. The province is NOT throwing out entire vials of vaccine. The issue seems to be what to do with leftovers in individual vials after they have drawn full doses. /3
Other jurisdictions have grappled with this. In the US, several vaccination centres threw them out prior to receiving advice from the FDA to use them. See https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/16/labeling-confusion-led-to-wasted-doses-of-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-in-first-days-of-rollout/ /4
The AHS memo clearly states that they would be discarding the leftovers in the absence of any guidance from the manufacturer. This makes sense to me since the guidance is clearly necessary to understand why the vials contain more doses than the label shows. /5
The memo also suggests that when that guidance exists, a lottery will decide how the leftovers are deployed. I am not going to comment on the allocation criteria because it is beside the point. My point in writing this thread is to show Alberta is not doing anything unusual. /6
With so much public interest in this vaccine, every decision will be scrutinized, rightly so. But it is also important to get what is happening right. I really don't think the province will throw out vaccines they can use willy-nilly. To do so, they will have a good rationale. /7
One exists in this instance: lack of direction from the manufacturer. / fin
