In Germany, tens of millions of doses of corona vaccine are at risk of expiry. According to the Federal Health Service, there are currently 77 million doses of Covid vaccines in storage nearing expiration. In this regard, the trade union parties criticize the purchasing policy of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). The CDU now wants to bring a guilty person to justice.
A ministry spokesman confirmed a report from Welt am Sonntag, according to which about 77 million doses of corona vaccine were in stock at the central federal warehouse as of April 4. More than ten million of these will reach their sell-by date by the end of June, and 50 million cans in the third quarter, they say.
The problem: The German vaccination campaign has slowed down considerably in recent weeks. According to the Health Ministry’s vaccination dashboard, only a few tens of thousands of doses were administered per day, up from a total of 38,000 doses on Friday. In comparison, in December there were sometimes more than a million stitches a day.
Manufacturers need to extend shelf life
The ministry said the shelf life of the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine had already been extended from six to nine months. Moderna has also extended the shelf life of its vaccine from seven to nine months and has been asked to submit data for a further extension.
CDU accuses Lauterbach of “shopping madness”.
The health policy spokesman of the union faction, Tino Sorge (CDU), accused Health Minister Lauterbach of a “shopping madness” in the “Welt am Sonntag”, “the minister knows no boundaries anymore when it comes to vaccine orders”. Given the tense fiscal situation, the minister will have to answer for “the costs incurred by the federal budget as a result of its unnecessary orders,” Sorge said.
According to the Ministry of Health, a total of 677 million doses of corona vaccine have been ordered for Germany between 2021 and 2023, of which more than half – 375 million doses – from Biontech/Pfizer.
Vaccine is destroyed “in not a few cases”.
The German Ministry of Health assumes that the corona vaccine will be destroyed “in quite a few cases”. The ministry justified this to the “Welt” (online Sunday/Print Monday) by saying that the vaccines are still only available in multi-dose containers, which, according to the approval, can only be stored for a few hours when opened.
So far, 306,000 doses have expired in Austria
To date, 306,203 doses of corona vaccine have expired in Austria (as of April 4). In contrast, there are more than 18 million vaccinated doses, the Ministry of Health in Vienna announced on request on Monday.
Most expired doses were for the vector vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, with only 18,140 doses from the mRNA vaccines from Biontech/Pfizer or Moderna. The expired vaccine doses are “not destroyed, but stored according to the product, as the European Medicines Agency can expect a retrospective extension of the shelf life”, it was emphasized.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
