Was There Excessive Vaccine Wastage in Australia?
Was There Excessive Vaccine Wastage?
As part of its pandemic response, the Australian government purchased 267.3 million doses of Covid vaccines, enough to vaccinate Australia’s population of approximately 26 million people ten times over. But figures released by the Department of Health (DOH) confirm that, three years into the vaccine program, only 70 million doses, or 26% of the 267.3 million doses purchased, have been administered, while 35% of vaccine doses have been wasted since the start of the vaccine rollout.
In answers to questions relating to a clarification of wasted vaccine doses a DOH (Department of Health) spokesperson responded, “As of 31 March 2024 the total COVID-19 vaccine program wastage rate was at 35.69%. Australia’s wastage rate is within the World Health Organization (WHO) acceptable wastage parameters for multidose vials of 15% and 40%. Approximately 80% of COVID-19 vaccine wastage is attributed to expiry of doses across warehouses and vaccine administration sites.”
This appears to mean that 80% of the wasted doses simply expired on the shelf; while the remaining 20% of wasted doses would likely be due to administration sites not managing to use the entire contents of multi-dose vials once opened. While unopened vials have a shelf-life of anywhere between 9-18 months, opened vials must be used within 6-48 hours.
While for ‘contractural and security reasons’ the Government is refusing to release the details of the purchase costs for the vaccine doses; we now know, from government records, that total government spending on Covid vaccines and treatment supply amounts to over $18 billion, of which it appears that the lion’s share was allocated to purchasing vaccine doses. Most of these remain unused. DOH figures show that as at 3 April, only a quarter (70 million) of the 267.3 million purchased doses had been used, at a total usage rate of 26.2%. Of the remaining 197.3 million unadministered doses, the DOH advised that approximately 53 million doses have been donated as foreign aid. That leaves approximately 144 million doses, more than half of the total stockpile, either already expired, or likely to expire within the next several years, as booster rates hover below 10%.
As Australia’s vaccine purchases extend into 2023 and 2024, it is probable that a portion of these doses will still be viable up to 2025. But even if vaccine doses never expired, it would take Australians 29 years to work their way through the glut, based on the five million boosters administered in the past 12 months.
Deborah Gleeson, Associate Professor of Public Health at La Trobe University, criticised the government’s run on the global vaccine supply, suggesting that Australia had hoarded more than its share. Prof Gleeson told the ABC,
“Australia really participated in a bigger trend that we’ve seen worldwide of wealthy countries buying up far more doses of COVID-19 vaccines than they needed early on in the pandemic. And this is a practice that unfortunately has continued”
This is Wastage of Australian Taxes:
If we assume that up to 30% of the vaccines were useful to Australians, considering that at this stage only 26.2% is the usage up until 5th April, 2024; then 70% would have to be considered a significant over purchase and significant wastage of scarce financial resources. This excess spending coincided with a time where housing affordablity, significantly increased electricity charges, and excessive costs of living rises impacting extremely adversely on low income Australians. If this was not wasted then the Government would have close to $12.6 billion to assist struggling families.