State data shows El Paso has wasted less than .03% of vaccine doses it has received

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — More than 6,800 coronavirus vaccine doses have been wasted in Texas as of the end of last week, according to data from the Department of State Health Services. 

In El Paso, 42 doses have been wasted in total by seven local providers. In total, those seven providers received more than 125,000 doses, meaning wasted doses accounted only for about .03%. 

El Paso has fared better than several parts of the state in vaccine waste. Nearly 4,000 doses statewide have been lost due to natural disasters and power outages. 

All three coronavirus vaccines have different storage requirements, but all must be kept cold to prevent being spoiled. The chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso says the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine could make distribution simpler as it only requires basic refrigeration.

“That one will be the easiest one to store and deliver,” Dr. Edward Michelson said. “It’s only a single dose, so that will make it much simpler, particularly in areas that are doing smaller numbers of patients or where patients may have to travel a distance to get their vaccine.”

Michelson also credits large distribution sites for preventing vaccine waste. 

“That’s probably the most efficient way to administer vaccine because that means that the vaccines are being prepared shortly before they're being given,” he said. “We have patients lined up waiting, so we end up not losing or wasting any doses. I think it's a little tougher to do that in more rural areas or in areas that do smaller numbers of vaccine.”

You can view the state's vaccine waste data here.