With an uneven vaccine rollout, high demand, and stories of vials being thrown away, how many vaccines doses are going to waste? It is hard to tell. The CDC requires that states report how many shots are discarded, but many states are not even counting the number. It is important to know so we can fix issues in the supply chain or in storage deficiencies, but data collection and enforcement varies by state. Caroline Chen, healthcare reporter at ProPublica, joins us for more.




Next, the new strains of coronavirus have been very concerning when it comes to vaccine efficacy, but Moderna, maker of one of the approved vaccines in the U.S. has said that their shots are effective against South African and U.K. variants. Still, they are exploring making a booster shot and a new version of the vaccine to combat the South African strain, in which scientists see sharp declines of antibody levels in people. Peter Loftus, healthcare reporter at the WSJ, joins us for Moderna's vaccine plans.




Finally, the troubling pattern emerging among the new coronavirus variants is that they are all more transmissible and they are becoming the dominant strains in their respective areas. Mutations in the virus are making the spike protein stickier, allowing people to become infected more easily. This leads many scientists to believe that the changing virus will require updated annual vaccines similar to the flu shot. Sarah Zhang, staff writer at the Atlantic, joins us for more on these new covid variants.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.