2 Governors Ask FDA Vaccine Pooling Approval

Govs. Jared Polis (CO) and Kate Brown (OR) are asking FDA acting commissioner Janet Woodcock to permit the pooling of Covid-19 vaccines by granting a short-term emergency waiver for experienced practitioners. In their 3/8 letter, Polis and Brown say vaccine pooling is a common practice routinely used for other vaccine doses such as the flu vaccine. Medical practitioners take leftover amounts of a vaccine from one vial and combine it with another vial to produce one full vaccine dose, they say.

“With the use of Low Dead Space syringes and equipment, trained practitioners can get a sixth and potentially seventh dose out of the Pfizer vial,” Polis and Brown say. “We cannot afford the waste of vaccine that our practitioners see on a daily and hourly basis, as they dispose of the ‘leftover’ at the bottom of so many vials. That leftover can and should be put to use saving lives.”