Thousands of COVID-19 doses set to expire while millions of Canadians haven’t signed up for a shot – CBC

Concerns related to mixed doses also leading to vaccine waste, some pharmacists say

Aug 06, 2021

Toronto pharmacist Kyro Maseh faced a difficult task on Tuesday. He had to toss 330 doses of the Moderna vaccine that expired before he could get enough people to sign up for a shot.

“It feels sinful to throw these out,” he said. “This shouldn’t be happening. It hurts.”

In the early days of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, the main hurdle was having enough vaccines to meet demand. But now that a majority of Canadians have received their shots, pharmacists and health-care providers face a new challenge: getting enough people to sign up for a dose before their available supply expires.

“It’s a whole different situation now,” said Regina-based infectious disease physician Dr. Alexander Wong, whose clinic tossed eight expired Moderna doses last week.

“Now we’re dealing with everybody that’s left — [those with] questions, [the] hesitant … It’s going to require outside-the-box thinking to better engage these people.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/covid-19-vaccine-doses-waste-1.6130768