The COVID-19 vaccine supply is outweighing demand in more than 1,000 U.S. counties, according to recent research from pharmacy discount company GoodRx.
As of April 19, 1,139 counties had COVID-19 vaccine appointments available at local CVS, Rite-Aid or Walmart pharmacies. That is a 30 percent increase compared to the appointment availability GoodRx recorded April 5.
From April 5-19, 415 more counties reported a surplus of COVID-19 vaccine appointments. During the same period, only 122 counties saw all their appointments get booked. Many counties in California, New York and Michigan experienced a surge in vaccine surplus during those two weeks, according to GoodRx.
To effectively curb the spread of the virus in the U.S., about 80 percent of Americans need to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The longer it takes to reach that level, the more likely it is that virus variants will evolve to dodge the immune response elicited by vaccines, according to the report.
More articles on pharmacy:
Drug spending is climbing amid the pandemic, but not at hospitals
J&J vaccine effective against virus variants, study shows
1 in 850 COVID-19 vaccine doses wasted in US, CDC data shows