Health
COVID Vaccines on the verge of Expiration and Dumping
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, August 20, 2022 – The Turks and Caicos‘s islands have a very high rate of vaccine driven herd immunity but low booster uptake is putting it at risk and the islands may be approaching a vaccine dump if citizens remain reluctant; with some doses just over a month from expiring.
This is according to Acting Minister of Health E. Jay Saunders who explained that herd immunity occurred when 70 to 85% of a population was immune to a disease. Based on initial vaccination the islands would’ve been well above the threshold needed to secure herd immunity but compared to those early numbers barely anyone is taking their boosters.
There are 30 288 fully vaccinated individuals in the Turks and Caicos but only 7,272 are boosted; this is around 23 percent of the vaccinated population.
In terms of those who are double vaxxed the numbers are even lower, only 2,939 or around 9 percent of the population.
This is dangerous, Saunders said as it has been proven with COVID-19 vaccine that they have a tendency to wane over time and the majority of islanders were vaccinated more than 6 months prior- meaning lower efficacy.
It also means valuable doses are going to waste. When the Turks and Caicos’ COVID-19 booster program was rolled
Between October and December a sixth and seventh round of vaccines were delivered to the islands from the UK.
While the government did not say how many doses were included in the sixth batch, the seventh had over 9,300 doses and another batch was delivered in February according to deputy Governor Anya Williams.
Each shipment of vaccines from the UK usually has exceeded 5,000 doses. Now, in August a little over 10,200 booster shots have been administered.
Dr Jeremy Myers, Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Human Services confirmed that certain doses were set to expire in September.
“Doses in Providenciales actually expire at the end of September. We do know, especially coming back to back to school some people traveled recently. We do strongly encourage, while you are doing your back to school shopping, to get a back-to-school booster.”
Uptake is also low for pediatric doses, (children under 5) with only 162 children being vaccinated with the first dose and only 128 receiving a second dose. The acting minister did not give an update on the 5 to 11 age group which also received vaccines earlier this year.
Expiry dates for purple-capped Pfizer vaccines which the UK provides to the Turks and Caicos were extended an additional three months from their initial six month shelf life provided they were kept in the prescribed temperature and conditions. Orange-capped vaccines which the island utilizes for young children and grey-capped vaccines have a shelf life of one year. No Pfizer vaccine regardless of storage condition or dosage should be used after 12 months.
Turks and Caicos Islands have dumped Covid-19 vaccines before; nearly all of the 300 doses of AstraZeneca branded vaccines received in March 2021 expired due to low interest in the product.
Expiry dates are calculated based on the manufacture date and therefore must be discarded 12 months after being produced.
“We’re doing very badly as a country with people taking their boosters.— if you’ve been vaccinated try to get your boosters every six months,” urged Saunders.