States across the country are sitting on millions of unused COVID-19 vaccine doses that will soon expire.
Public health officials in Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware and North Carolina told STAT News they have thousands of vials each that haven't been opened due to the declining demand for shots.
Health departments have urged the Biden administration to extend the shelf life of the vaccines or to send their extra supply to other counties, but their requests have been denied.
'We're drowning in this stuff,' Robert Ator, a retired colonel in the Arkansas Air National Guard and lead coordinators of the state's vaccine distribution program, told STAT News.
'It's starting to get a bit silly and we want to make sure we're being good stewards.'
Million of unused COVID-19 vaccines doses are set to expire in the next two months as demand drops off and have asked to send their unused doses overseas. Pictured: Boxes containing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine are unloaded from air shipping containers in Louisville, Kentucky, December 2020
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 390.7 million vaccine doses have been distributed across the U.S.
However, just 338.4 million have been administered, a difference of 52.3 million doses.
Although some of the difference is likely due to reporting delays from state health departments, it's also likely due to some states having excess vaccines
Arkansas stopped accepting
