Congressman Krishnamoorthi Leads Bipartisan Coalition Of 32 Members Calling on CDC to Update Guidance on Preventing Vaccine Waste

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and a bipartisan group of thirty-two members of Congress signed a letter urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update its guidance to ensure no vaccine doses go to waste. The Members state further that if no updated guidance is promptly published and distributed to states and localities, they will be forced to produce a legislative solution to the problem of COVID-19 vaccines expiring before being administered.

"While serving an important function to ensure our most vulnerable populations receive the vaccine first, the priority tier system developed by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and widely adopted by states and localities, has forced some providers to choose between adhering to requirements from public health authorities and inoculating additional individuals against a deadly disease," said the Members. "ACIP's existing recommendations for a phased allocation of the vaccines, which take important factors such as frontline status, age, comorbidities, and equity into consideration, do not give sufficient guidance to providers who find themselves in the scenario described above where a vaccine is on the verge of expiration."

The waste of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine doses is a failure of government planning, especially in light of the fact that the United States has had months to prepare for this scenario. Thousands of Americans are dying and being infected each day, and the strategic allocation of the vaccine must not hinder our ability to utilize all doses produced. In the letter, the members requested an answer from the CDC to this urgent request by Wednesday, January 13th, 2021

A copy of the Members' letter is available here.