Vaccines not used so destroyed

[NoMLMbots]

So Malawi has today burned thousands of unused vaccines. Meanwhile countries are urged to consider poorer countries and send vaccines to them.

I think vaccines should be sent to countries that need them (India) and will actually use them and not to countries like Malawi where they end up wasted.

AIBU

link to story on the BBC news

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-57168841

To be fair though Malawi hasn't really had a big problem with Covid

"Uptake of the vaccine in Malawi has been low and health workers hope the move will increase public confidence.

Out of a population of about 18 million people, the country has recorded 34,232 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,153 deaths."

So perhaps the vaccines meant for countries like that should go to India/Brazil/other countries with higher death rate/number of cases.

South Sudan another problem

"South Sudan has 59,000 doses which it also plans to discard."

Far worse

"The Democratic Republic of Congo, meanwhile, says it cannot use most of the 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses it received under the global Covax scheme for poorer countries."

That is a huge amount of wasted vaccines!

🙄 What do you expect them to do with expired vaccines exactly?
Why don’t you give the full picture in your OP?

Of course richer countries will be criticised for getting their population vaccinated whilst poorer countries lag behind but.... if they only go into the bin/incinerator what is the point

@AnxiousFTMFriendlyAdvicePlease

🙄 What do you expect them to do with expired vaccines exactly? Why don’t you give the full picture in your OP?

Perhaps use them before they expire....

I mean 1.7 million vaccines for one country alone will be dumped

Asking a very large country with poor transport links and financial problems to roll out thousands of vaccines at short notice is not ideal. They should send the vaccine to places that are prepared for it, in quantities they are able to manage, and maybe provide operational support

Here you go OP, here is all the reasons why this happened

www.bbc.co.uk/news/56940657

OK so vaccine mistrust accounts for some of the reasons:

"A study commissioned by Africa CDC on Covid-19 vaccine perceptions in 15 countries indicated a significant proportion of people had concerns around vaccine safety.

On average, about 20% of respondents said they would not have a vaccine - but the proportion varied from below 10% in Ethiopia, Niger and Tunisia to 41% in DR Congo."

So send them where they want them or will use them then.

@NoMLMbots - Pathetic response, you know nothing of the problems they are likely to be facing. You are just being goady.

Why aren’t you trawling through articles of the richer countries looking to see how many vaccines they’ve dumped? You are fixated on African countries it seems.

[quote Menora]Here you go OP, here is all the reasons why this happened

www.bbc.co.uk/news/56940657[/quote]
Yep I know

So therefore why send them so they can end up going in the bin/incinerator

Send them to India or countries that need them and will use them?

@NoMLMbots They don’t have the infrastructure to quickly use large numbers of a vaccine with a very short shelf life.

I cannot imagine how hard it is to set up a massive vaccination drive in a country with those kinds of transport issues, let alone all the other issues. I know what is involved as it’s my job.

@Menora

Asking a very large country with poor transport links and financial problems to roll out thousands of vaccines at short notice is not ideal. They should send the vaccine to places that are prepared for it, in quantities they are able to manage, and maybe provide operational support

Exactly.

Prepare the way first then send and meanwhile use the doses somewhere that will use them

[quote SimonJT]@NoMLMbots They don’t have the infrastructure to quickly use large numbers of a vaccine with a very short shelf life.[/quote]
Do they have similar problems with other vaccines or just with covid vaccines?

In the UK we also dispose of unused vaccines when they hit their expiry date/ at the end of the day for unused doses from open vials of eg Pfizer

Can you not research that yourself if it is something you’re interested in? While I’m an expert at wasting time on the internet I’m not doing someone elses research.

From the news stories, looks like they were given unwanted vaccines that were already fairly close to expiring. Receiving large shipments of vaccines without advance notice, close to expiry, is very difficult to manage, particularly if infrastructure is poorer to start with.

So I don't blame Malawi. But I do agree that the distributers need to take into account whether a country can realistically distribute them.

[quote AnxiousFTMFriendlyAdvicePlease]@NoMLMbots - Pathetic response, you know nothing of the problems they are likely to be facing. You are just being goady.

Why aren’t you trawling through articles of the richer countries looking to see how many vaccines they’ve dumped? You are fixated on African countries it seems.[/quote]
Oh dear! Is 'goady' the 'go to' expression when you have nothing else to say?

I say the story pop up on the BBC news today - that's why I commented. Perhaps take it up with the BBC about why they are publishing the story today? I don't write the news, I merely read it and then had an opinion as people sometime do

Part of not being prepared in places like Nigeria could be the fear of the cargo being intercepted and stolen. Only one third of charity supplies get to the people, according to my Nigerian friends.

OP Google the population of countries in Africa and then couple that with all of the issues Africa faces, they are doing well. We can't not supply them because they won't use all of the vaccines. This was always an issue, short use by dates and the storage needed. The people who need the vaccines might need an overnight stay to reach the vaccination centers, from semi rural locations. But then if they stay with family/friends there's a fear of getting Covid. We shouldn't abandon people because their circumstances are leaving them unvaccinated.

Send them to India or countries that need them and will use them?

India doesn’t have the infrastructure to use them before they go OOD either. TBH you sound a bit racist with your fixation on Africa. Did you first read about this in the Daily Mail?!

I don’t think you really understand the issues. They don’t have the staff, PPE, transport etc but this was Covax scheme so it was going to be sent to third world countries, so they sent a load of short dates vaccines but no infrastructure can support this on such a large scale in a short time frame. AZ vaccine does not come in pre drawn syringes and this had a short shelf life. When countries such as Malawi are doing vaccination schemes it will be a different set of circumstances they are dealing with to this. Covax scheme needs to make sure they aren’t rushing out vaccine without infrastructure or help, so this is a lesson learned

@MaskingForIt

Send them to India or countries that need them and will use them?

India doesn’t have the infrastructure to use them before they go OOD either. TBH you sound a bit racist with your fixation on Africa. Did you first read about this in the Daily Mail?!

No it was on the BBC news today?

"Do they have similar problems with other vaccines or just with covid vaccines?"

It's the short shelf life and storage that's the problem. When Elboa first hit, they had issues. Then planned well over a couple of years. Our infectious disease specialists went out and hrlped. When Elboa reached Nigeria (I'm using Nigeria because it's somewhere I know about), it was a collaboration to eradicate it. The shit has hit the fan with Covid and there's no-one to help each country because it's global. African countries are dealing with other health crises at the same time. Plus there's still terrorism and high crime rates etc.

@Menora

I don’t think you really understand the issues. They don’t have the staff, PPE, transport etc but this was Covax scheme so it was going to be sent to third world countries, so they sent a load of short dates vaccines but no infrastructure can support this on such a large scale in a short time frame. AZ vaccine does not come in pre drawn syringes and this had a short shelf life. When countries such as Malawi are doing vaccination schemes it will be a different set of circumstances they are dealing with to this. Covax scheme needs to make sure they aren’t rushing out vaccine without infrastructure or help, so this is a lesson learned

It's true I don't understand the problems hence asking. I merely reacted to a news story on the BBC. The story did what it was intended to do and that is get a reaction. Many thanks for your reply.

I agree Covax schemes need to re-evaluate and if there is such a thing send vaccines with a longer shelf life or ones that can be transported over time to reach people in more remote locations.