Poor nations are ruling out more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, so many more are nearing extinction.

By Francesco Guarasco

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Last month, poor nations rejected more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the global COVAX program, mainly because the expiration date was fast approaching, a UNICEF official said on Thursday.

The large numbers show difficulties in integrating the world’s population, although the supply of firearms is growing, COVAX is approaching to deliver 150 billion doses to almost 150 countries.

“More than 100 million were rejected in December alone,” Etleva Kadilli, director of the UN agency’s supply division, told European Parliament lawmakers, adding that the main reason for the refusal was short-lived.

On the same day, a spokesman for the UN Children’s Agency said that 15.5 million of the 100 million doses that had been discarded had been destroyed. Several countries ruled out certain doses.

UNICEF has not responded to a consultation on the total number of rejected doses so far, in addition to those rejected in December.

Vaccination of relatively short-lived vaccines by rich countries has been a “big problem” for COVAX, a senior official at the World Health Organization said last month.

Even poorer nations have been forced to delay supply because they do not have adequate storage facilities, Kadilli said, including a lack of vaccine refrigerators, COVAX’s investments have been delayed for months.

Many countries also have a high level of vaccine uncertainty and have overloaded their health care systems.

At the end of 2021, the EU made 380 million doses available to the poorest countries, of which only 255 million were given, according to the European Commission.

Many other doses are stored for use in poorer nations.

UNICEF data show that 681 million doses are now stored in the 90 poorest countries, according to data released by CARE, a charity, from a public database.

More than 30 poor nations, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and major states like Nigeria, have used less than half of the doses received, CARE said.

A spokesman for Gavi, the vaccine alliance co-managed by COVAX, said the high level of storage was due to the rise in shipments in the last quarter, especially in December.

Gavi added that most of the vaccines that COVAX had just sent were long-lasting, so they were unlikely to be wasted.

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Co-led by the WHO, COVAX, has delivered 987 million COVID-19 vaccines to 144 countries, according to Gavi.

COVAX is the main provider of eleven poor nations, but not the only one, as some countries buy their own doses or use other regional programs.

Supplies to the poorest nations have long been very limited due to a lack of vaccines, as rich countries have secured most of the doses initially available from December 2020 onwards.

But shipments have grown exponentially in the last quarter, thanks to donations from rich countries that have included a majority of the population.

In January, 67% of the population of the richest nations were fully vaccinated, and only 8% of the poorest countries received the first dose, according to WHO data.

Increasing supply caught many unprepared recipients.

“We have countries that are currently pushing for the doses available for the second quarter of 2022,” Kadilli said.

Of the 15 million EU doses that were denied, three-quarters were AstraZeneca (NASDAQ 🙂 shots with less than 10 weeks to arrive, according to a UNICEF slide.

“You want the right time to take the vaccines out of storage,” said Kenya Ministry of Health spokesman Mburugu Gikunda, adding that doses nearing expiration would be wasted if accepted.

Reuters reported in December that an estimated one million vaccines had expired in Nigeria without being used in the previous month.