U.S. VACCINE SURPLUS GROWS AS EXPIRY DATES LOOM

The US surplus in COVID-19 vaccines is growing as states fail to ramp vaccinations, with Tennessee and North Carolina returning millions of doses to the federal government, even if less than half of their total populations been vaccinated, Lindsay Whitehurst and Leah Willingham reported for the Associated Press (AP).

This bit of news comes as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided that about 60 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine made at a Baltimore plant must be discarded because of possible contamination, Kristopher Radder of the Brattleboro Reformer reported.

The FDA plans to allow about 10 million doses to be distributed in the US or sent to other countries, but with a warning that regulators cannot guarantee that the plant followed good manufacturing practices. The Johnson & Johnson doses administered so far in the US were manufactured in the Netherlands.

Oklahoma has not asked for new doses from the government for more than a month, spurning its 200,000-a-week allotment.

Around the country, states are rushing to use up doses before they expire this summer.

The US is confronted with an ever-growing surplus of coronavirus vaccines, looming expiration dates and stubbornly lagging demand at a time when the developing world is clamoring for doses to stem a rise in infections.

Million-dollar prizes, free beer and marijuana, raffled-off hunting rifles and countless other giveaways around the country have failed to significantly move the needle on vaccine hesitancy, raising the specter of new outbreaks.

The stockpiles are becoming more daunting each week. Oklahoma has more than 700,000 doses on shelves but is administering only 4,500 a day and has 27,000 Pfizer and Moderna doses that are set to expire at the end of the month.

Millions of Johnson & Johnson doses nationwide were set to expire this month before the government extended their dates by six weeks, but some leaders acknowledge it will be difficult to use them up even by then.

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