At the beginning of the pandemic, states scramble for the Covid vaccine doses. That time is now over. The vaccines could rot in the freezer in just a few weeks. The only way out is for the Federal Ministry of Health to talk to the manufacturers about the expiry date.
According to the Ministry of Health, four million corona vaccine doses should reach the end of their shelf life by the end of June and then have to be destroyed. "By May 23, 2.2 million vaccine doses had expired," said a spokesman. But there are talks with the manufacturers about the expiry date.
The company Biontech had previously extended the shelf life of its own products. The reasons for the expired vaccine doses are both the low willingness to vaccinate and the fact that excess vaccine doses can currently hardly be given to other countries as they used to. There is no longer any willingness or ability to accept. So-called mRNA vaccines are particularly affected. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach had repeatedly pointed out that the expiry of some vaccine doses was a phenomenon that had to be taken into account in view of the sufficient procurement of vaccine doses.
The Union, on the other hand, accuses Lauterbach of buying too many vaccine doses. Eastern European EU member countries, meanwhile, increased pressure on Pfizer and other manufacturers to renegotiate Covid-19 vaccine contracts. The contracts were concluded at a time when the development of the pandemic was not yet foreseeable and should now be changed in view of an improvement in the situation. Otherwise there is a risk of the vaccine being wasted.
Poland, which is taking a leading role in these talks, alone has more than 30 million doses of Covid vaccine in stock and would have to buy another 70 million under the existing agreements, a Polish diplomat said. "We see an excessive burden on state budgets, combined with the delivery of unnecessary quantities of vaccine," the joint letter said. "There is a high probability that the cans shipped to the European Union will end up being disposed of."
