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Wasteful destruction of vaccines

(9 Posts)
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GillT57 Mon 13-Sept-21 16:40:50

According to reports, 800,000 doses of the Astra Zenica covid19 vaccine are about to be destroyed as their use by date was the end of August. It is unbelievable that these were not either (a) used here to continue the vaccination programme which we keep being assured is a roaring success or (b) shipped to third world countries in desperate need of vaccines, in plenty of time for them to be used, even getting them on a plane by the beginning of August would have helped.

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Alegrias1 Mon 13-Sept-21 16:54:09

The Telegraph I see.

Extrapolated to UK wide figures from the figures in Wales, without any corroboration from anybody who actually knows.

Perhaps someone with medical knowledge will come along and tell us whether 1.7% wastage is typical for vaccination programs?

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AGAA4 Mon 13-Sept-21 16:55:28

Looking at a map of the world and the percentage of people vaccinated it is a dreadful waste that those vaccines weren't sent to those parts of the world where the percentage of people vaccinated is nil.

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GillT57 Mon 13-Sept-21 18:44:19

Ok Alegrias, I picked it up on a trusted FB page, didn't realise it was a Telegraph quote, now off to eat humble pie and wash my mouth out. Then I will look for someone with medical knowledge

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Alegrias1 Mon 13-Sept-21 19:53:09

Its just me, sorry GillT57 flowers

But I look at something like this and think, well, how do they know? How much did they think they would lose to wastage? Is 1.7% actually quite good? Did they think they were going to use them in August but no-shows made it impossible to do that? Would it have cost far too much to repackage it all up and send it off somewhere else? Could the destination country actually have done something with it? Are there contractual issues that would prevent them giving vaccines to other countries?

Can't help it, sorry.... sad

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Calendargirl Mon 13-Sept-21 21:59:23

I read the report in the Telegraph. It seemed the AZ vaccines were not used in time because they could no longer be given to the under 40’s. And logistical problems meant they could not be sent abroad in time to help others.

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maddyone Thu 16-Sept-21 00:07:01

It’s a shame whatever the reason because there are millions of people in the world who are quite literally dying for a vaccine.

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absent Thu 16-Sept-21 06:31:48

The logistics of mass vaccination on the scale we are seeing world wide must be pretty horrendous. It is surely inevitable that there will be blips and, while it is frustrating that so many doses had to be destroyed, it would be even worse if they were used anywhere and proved ineffective.

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Alegrias1 Thu 16-Sept-21 09:17:44

WHO think that 50% wastage isn't unprecedented. See attached and how it is being addressed.

I wouldn't get too het up over 1.7%

theconversation.com/covid-vaccine-some-waste-is-normal-but-heres-how-it-is-being-kept-to-a-minimum-152772

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