As demand for COVID-19 vaccines falls, states are left with large stockpiles

Demand has plummeted for COVID-19 vaccines across the country, leaving many American states with unused stockpiles that must be used before they expire. 

Millions have reportedly already gone to waste.

States with highly vaccinated populations and ones with the lowest rates of populations are trying desperately to shuffle around doses to providers in want of them. 

Recently, 1.5 million doses in Michigan went to waste, 1.45 million in North Carolina met the same fate, as did 1 million in Iowa and nearly 725,000 in Washington. 

Supplies are, at this point, so ample that the CDC is advising doctors to discord doses if it means opening up a multi-dose vial to vaccinate a single person, even if the rest then must be discarded. 

Dr. Joseph Bresee, a COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Program director at the Task Force for Global Health in Decatur, Georgia told the Associated Press, "The issue of some stockpiles in the U.S., Germany and Japan, that are not redistributed to sub-Saharan Africa, it’s less of an acute problem now because vaccine production and distribution is in high-gear right now serving those low-income countries."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has also advised that redistribution of vaccine doses to other nations is not possible due to the difficulty of keeping the shots cold while traveling.

At present, the average number of Americans receiving their first shot is down to about 80,000 per day – about 76% of the U.S. population has received at least one shot and roughly 65% oof all Americans are fully vaccinated.

Some states have developed so-called "matchmaker" programs, which help connect vaccine providers with too many doses to providers seeking doses. HHS says it is attempting to order doses prudently, given the drop in demand, but some, including director at the Association of Immunization Managers, Claire Hannan, says expired doses are "a necessary evil," and "just can't be an issue."