Data Shows US Wasted 15M Doses of COVID Vaccine Since March

More than 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been thrown away or wasted since March, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data received by NBC News through a public records request.

The 15.1 million wasted doses might even be an undercount, according to the report.

"It's really tragic that we have a situation where vaccines are being wasted while lots of African countries have not had even 5% of their populations vaccinated," England's University of Warwick professor Sharifah Sekalala told NBC News.

"A lot of the global south is unvaccinated. The African continent is still below 10%, and that's just a huge inequality, and it's really problematic."

Among the largest pharmacies to have self-reported more than 1 million wasted doses, according to the CDC:

Walgreens - 2.6 million.

CVS - 2.3 million.

Walmart - 1.6 million.

Rite Aid - 1.1 million.

"While we regret having to dispose of any vaccine, we're extremely proud of our store employees who've helped administer more than 30 million doses," a CVS spokesman wrote in an email to NBC News.

"When given the option of potentially saving a life or slightly improving our reported waste figures, we'll always choose the former."

Walgreens, Walmart, and Rite Aid did not respond to NBC News' requests for comment.