It was a jarring number to hear reported on the national news Monday morning.
When calculating in pharmacies, the 50 states, American territories, along with the federal agencies it was discovered that over 82 million COVID does were discarded. The time frame for the disposal was from December 2020 through mid-May this year.
To add more sting to the news that means over 11 percent of the doses the federal government distributed were ‘flushed’.
There is no way to feel anything than angst and even outright revulsion, as we know poor nations are still very much behind in their efforts to vaccinate. Once again, Americans have shown an ugly side by having so much at our disposal, and not being wise enough to act for the greater good.
I understand that with the large effort at vaccination there is an estimated amount factored in for removal from the process, given the ‘shelf life’ of the doses once opened. But also we know our nation had the means to be vaccinated and truly engage, one with another, so to stem and more firmly break the hold the virus has on our national health.
But too many willfully refused to act responsibly.
In May, it was reported our nation passed a grim number when over 1 million of our fellow citizens had died from a virus that medical professionals and scientists had alerted us about, and also asked us to help prevent spreading. At every stage of the pandemic, some first denied the existence of COVID, worked against mask mandates, and rebelled against closing or curtailing social interactions, such as schools and universities.
So I guess, in fairness, it should not have come as any surprise that many would adamantly reject a medically-proven vaccine to assist in moving our nation past a medical and economic crisis. The far less than stellar vaccine rates around the nation turned into part of the narrative we have sadly come to accept.
Yet it was a whopping number of trashed doses to learn about upon waking today. Our government did not fail to do its part starting in late December 2020 to supply the national need for shots in the arms of the populace. Scientists did not fail to continue working when new variants were detected, nor did health departments when urging citizens to be steadfast about getting boosters, too.
In the end, Americans failed each other. Tribal politics and relentless advocacy for the most baseless and absurd claims by anti-vaxxers were repeated and fed to a segment of the nation, who then simply opted out of their role as good stewards of humanity.
There is no way to hear or read “over 82 million COVID vaccine doses wasted” and not feel an empty space in our national collective soul.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 