U.S. pharmacists suggest mixing residual doses of coronavirus vaccine. Food and Drug Administration calls for a stop: easy to breed bacteria

February 23rd – NBC reported on the 23rd that for millions of people queuing up to get the coronavirus vaccine in the United States, the U.S. health department is struggling to cope with the growing demand for vaccines.

Some pharmacists in the United States boldly suggested that the remaining coronavirus vaccine should be mixed together to form a complete dose. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) objected to this, saying that both Pfizer and Modena vaccines do not contain preservatives and that if mixed, it will increase the risk of bacterial breeding.

“To be honest, the coronavirus vaccine is more valuable than liquid gold,” said Melanie Massiwhite, chief pharmacy officer for the Inova Health System, a nonprofit hospital network in Virginia.

Some pharmacists in the United States say that mixing the remaining drugs in one bottle with the medicine in another is used as a complete dose for many years on drugs including influenza vaccines, chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics and so on. A simple solution can help thousands more people get vaccinated against COVID-19 every week.

“Although there are not many drugs left in each bottle, overall it can lead to a lot of waste,” said Stephen Jones, CEO of Enova Health System.

Massey White revealed that many pharmacists and medical staff asked questions: “Why can’t we concentrate the remaining doses?” According to the experiment, if the residual vaccine is mixed, at least 10% of the complete reagent can be made up.

In response, the Food and Drug Administration clearly stipulated that pharmacists and other clinicians should not mix the remaining coronavirus vaccines, because both Modena and Pfizer vaccines do not contain preservatives, and if mixed, they can easily breed bacteria.

Multi-dose drugs are prone to cross-contamination with other drugs, leading to serious bacterial infections.

If one bottle is contaminated, the mixing practice will spread the contamination to other bottles, prolonging the survival of the pathogen and increasing the possibility of disease transmission.