EU countries have not used at least 215 million doses of coronavirus vaccines purchased at the peak of the pandemic, Politico reports. According to its estimates, at least €4 billion were spent on them.
It is a rough estimate, the authors of the article stress, since only 15 EU countries provided data on unused vaccines during writing of the article; as for another four EU states, the necessary information could be found in open sources. In addition, Politico notes, the purchase prices of the vaccines were not disclosed.
Most likely, there are much more unused doses of vaccines that have either been written off or will be disposed of in the near future.
On average, according to Politico’s calculations, 0.7 vaccine doses per resident were not used across EU countries (for Estonia the figure is 1.1, for Ireland — 0.16).
Some of the vaccines supplied by manufacturers and paid for by customers were not in demand due to their ineffectiveness against new variants of coronavirus, the authors of the article note.
Politico recalls that the contract with one of the largest manufacturers of coronavirus vaccines, Pfizer, was concluded by EU countries until 2027. Poland and Hungary, which refused to purchase vaccines, were sued by Pfizer.
