Millions of Covid vaccines headed for the garbage
The Netherlands is stuck with a massive surplus of coronavirus
vaccines. This week, 3.5 million doses will expire, about half
of which will end up in the trash, AD reports
(
https://bit.ly/3NTXO9L).
After the run on vaccines in 2020, the race has now turned into
finding somewhere to donate the massive surplus before it expires.
But Western countries are struggling to find places that still need
vaccines, as most other countries already managed to acquire
their own.
The Netherlands has over 11 million unused doses of coronavirus
vaccines, according to the newspaper. At least 3.5 million shots
will expire in stages from this week. The vaccines have a freezer
life of only nine months.
After lobbying through local embassies, the Netherlands can donate
1.7 million doses to Nicaragua and Vietnam. The other 1.8 million
doses will likely be destroyed. "It now concerns AstraZeneca
vaccines, which mainly expire at the end of May and a small part
at the end of June," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public
Health confirmed to AD.
If the Netherlands is already struggling to donate vaccines, it
seems likely that doing so in the future will only get more
difficult. The government spent tens of millions of euros
of taxpayers' money on these 11 million redundant vaccines.