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Thousands Of COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Have Spoiled Or Spilled In Florida

A worker holds a bottle of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, as the mass public vaccination program gets underway at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, England, Tuesday Dec. 8, 2020. The CDC on Saturday released guidance on vaccination for those with preexisting conditions.
GRAEME ROBERTSON AP
/
The Miami Herald
A worker holds a bottle of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, as the mass public vaccination program gets underway at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, England, Tuesday Dec. 8, 2020. The CDC on Saturday released guidance on vaccination for those with preexisting conditions.

TALLAHASSEE

Florida healthcare officials have wasted more than 3,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, a spokesman for the Department of Health said Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, 3,344 doses were broken or left unused after thawing, the spokesman, Jason Mahon, wrote in an email.

That raw total may seem high at a time when pandemic-fatigued Floridians all over the state are awaiting their chance at the potentially life-saving shot. But the state has gotten more than 3 million doses from the federal government, and officials are reporting spoilage of about one in 1,000 doses.

Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.

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