People waited in line for hours last fall for the H1N1 vaccine as officials warned about the spreading pandemic. But, due to less demand than expected and production delays, local health departments now are getting rid of thousands of surplus doses that have become so much medical waste.
The CDC shipped 126 million doses of the vaccine under a $1.6 billion federal program, but officials estimate that only between 72 million and 81 million people have been vaccinated across the country.
In Illinois, more than 3.5 million vaccines have been distributed to local health departments, but very rough estimates say just 1.6 million had been administered by the end of March, said Melaney Arnold, a spokesperson for the state health department.