Wasted Vaccine

An Associated Press story on msnbc.com yesterday reported that 10 million doses of last year's flu vaccine are about to be destroyed. According to the article, this happens every year to make way for new vaccine in the fall... despite the fact that there is nothing yet wrong with the old vaccine, there is no guarantee that there will be enough new vaccine produced, and according to CDC flu strain expert Alexander Klimov, there is a good chance that the new vaccine may be very similar to the old vaccine...

Usually only one of the three vaccine strains changes — often, only slightly. Twice in the last decade, the recipe didn’t change at all."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17708169/

Klimov also noted that three times in the last decade, the vaccine strains recommended for the United States in one winter were identical to what was recommended for the Southern hemisphere the following summer. And several recent studies have apparently shown that even poorly matched vaccine from a previous year can still be highly effective.

This practice of destroying unused vaccine is costly, and has driven some vaccine manufacturers out of the business in the past. But the real outrage is how wasteful it is, when there appear to be viable uses for the old vaccine, and very good reasons for holding onto it, at least until the new vaccine is tested and ready.