Throwing away expired Covid vaccines causes R$2 billion worth of damage to the public treasury

The disposal of expired Covid vaccines causes R$2 billion in damage to the public treasury

The amount of discarded Covid vaccines due to underuse has represented a loss of R$2 billion to the public treasury since the beginning of the pandemic.

Expired vaccines are taken out of refrigeration, placed in barrels and transported to a company that will dispose of them. The final destination for these contraband is the sanitary dump.

“This certainly can supply a small town. Campaigns have been launched, healthy cars on the street, social networks, counsellors, society, but still people haven’t come to get vaccinated. Many didn’t want it,” says Sabucaya do Sul’s mayor, Volmir Rodriguez. And they didn’t believe it.”

A combination of factors has caused waste dumping in the state.

“We have received a larger amount from the Ministry of Health, and because of this amount, the expiration date is very close, just over 30 days. Consequently, the population’s non-compliance with vaccination led to the possibility that we would have to throw away a large number of doses, ”says Tani Ranieri, director of the Health Surveillance Center in Rio Grande do Sul.

The number of discards throughout Brazil is increasing every year. According to the Ministry of Health, at 2021, First year of covid vaccination, it was Approximately 2 million doses. in 2022, nearly 10 million. And in the first two months of 2023 alone, there are already more than 27 million missed doses.

The current management of the Ministry of Health says that when he took over the bag, V.I the beginning of the yearFound 27 million doses without sufficient time for distribution and use. Over the next six months, another 20 million doses will expire. Therefore, Dossier has been discussing with state and municipal health secretaries looking for strategies to avoid further waste.

“For all vaccination actions to be successful, they need an agreement with the states and municipalities, which is the actual place where the vaccination takes place. Our national vaccination movement will take place throughout the year. We will have actions in the school, and we will also do actions in points of concentration of people, so that we facilitate access to the vaccine and avoid Waste it,” says the Department of Health’s Minister for Health Oversight, Ethel Maciel.