Poor countries are getting massive vaccines close to their expiration date

Poor countries rejected more than 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines distributed under the global Covax program in December. UNICEF Official, Itliva Kadele, told MEPs on Thursday. The main reason for this, according to Reuters news agency, is that the delivered vaccines are close to their expiration date.

Another reason, Kadelli says, is that poor countries do not always have sufficient storage capacity or adequate refrigerators to store vaccines. In addition, many countries suffer from vaccine rejection and an overburdened health care system.

According to UNICEF, partly for this reason, 681 million doses spread in more than 90 countries are still waiting for an unused customer. In fact, in more than 30 poor countries – including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria – more than half of the doses delivered remain unused.

Nearly one billion doses have now been distributed across 144 countries under the Covax programme. In addition, some countries have also procured the potions themselves. But this is still a drop in the ocean. By January, 67 percent of the population of rich countries had been fully vaccinated. In poor countries, 8 percent received their first dose. Pressure is mounting on Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca to do more.