Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

COVID-19

Kamloops pharmacist urges COVID-19 vaccination booster uptake, says doses are going to waste

Feb 3, 2022 | 4:25 PM

KAMLOOPS — Missagh Manshadi is throwing away unusable Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. The pharmacist says not enough people are coming in for booster shots and the solution is going bad.

“We have so far discarded, maybe, 30 bottles. And each bottle is at least 20 — so 20 to 30 in each, shots,” he said.

It’s not that the vaccines are expired. Manshadi explains that the Moderna solution has to be stored in a fridge at a temperature of minus 70. Most pharmacies don’t have the capability to do that and are only able to hold on to the vaccines for a month at regular temperatures.

“After the one-month period, it is no good. Another problem is, once you open up the bottle of vaccine, it’s only good for 24 hours,” he said.

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Booster shots are not mandatory in the vaccine series or for passports. As a result, Manshadi says less people are opting to get them — and a lot are going to waste.

CFJC News reached out to the Ministry of Health for a comment on vaccines being discarded, but it did not respond by our deadline.

Manshadi says he’d rather see the province send the excess vaccines to countries where people haven’t even received one dose yet — so that variants of the virus stop arising.

“I think it would be prudent for us to send some of these vaccines to other countries. Especially, this is not a problem of Canada — it’s a problem of whole world,” he said.