Millions of Covid vaccines could be thrown away: Health Ministry

The Ministry of Public Health expects it will soon have to destroy millions of coronavirus vaccines. The Netherlands built up a large stock with millions of vaccines about to expire, and it is no longer possible to donate the vaccines to other countries.

More and more countries have built up sufficient vaccine stocks for themselves, Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health wrote to parliament on Tuesday. Globally, about 1.5 billion doses can be produced per month since the end of last year.

Another cause of the growing stock is that developing countries cannot receive and store more vaccines on the one hand and cannot distribute them well enough among the population on the other.

The Netherlands has about 11.3 million vaccines available for donation, but Kuipers thinks that the Ministry can only get rid of a "limited part." The vaccines also have a limited shelf life. "In the short term, this would mean destroying approximately 3.3 million vaccines."