Palmetto State vaccination numbers below national average, vaccines wasted

Charleston, South Carolina – Vaccination numbers in South Carolina are low compared to the national average statistics confirm. As of now, around 38% of South Carolinians are fully vaccinated.

What is even worse, plenty of unused doses are being throwed every day. The Vaccination Administration Management Systems claims there are multiple reasons why thousands of vaccines have been wasted in South Carolina.

“We have to get the vaccination rates up and there are still significant public health threats,” said Dr. Linda Bell, the South Carolina State Epidemiologist.

One of the reasons why vaccine doses are wasted is the rush more people to receive the shot. Some doses in every day activity are wasted because of this.

The most important reason why vaccines are wasted is broken vials and syringes. This is the reason for more than 20,000 doses thrown away.

Third reason is that not all doses from an open vial are being used. Nearly 19,000 doses were lost this way and more than 7,500 doses were drawn up into a syringe but reportedly not used.

Officials say they are trying to improve the whole process instead of issuing penalties for wasted doses.

“If we were to see extensive wastage or if we were to see mishandling of the vaccine, we will follow up with those individual providers to find out what went wrong, why the action occurred and to do a corrective action plan,” Bell said.

More than 7,000 vials were wasted until now because of expiration.