What a waste
It is estimated that some ₱5.1 billion in vaccines bought by the private sector for the government have expired.
The private sector is blaming the government for what happened, saying they dragged their feet when it came to expanding coverage for a second booster shot.
"The lack of urgency on the part of the HTAC (Health Technology Assessment Council) and the DOH (Department of Health) at which the vaccination advisories, policies, and implementation progressed caused the bulk disposal of these hardearned COVID-19 vaccines," said Joey Concepcion of Go Negosyo.
However, the DOH said the private sector could have avoided vaccine wastage by using their COVID vaccines to boost all eligible economic frontliners.
Considering who is buying what and for whom, it’s not easy anymore to trace who is responsible for one particular batch of vaccines. What we do know is that it is the responsibility of the DOH to encourage people who have not been vaccinated to do so, as well as those who have been vaccinated to take their boosters.
Every vaccine that we lose means that someone could have been given protection against the virus but wasn’t. Every person who isn’t protected is a possible carrier of COVID-19 or its latest and more infectious variants or, worse, a casualty.
Again, those lost vaccines don’t mean only people who may, at best, get sick and extend the pandemic and our dire economic situation or, at worst, die from it, it also means resources were wasted. It’s a waste of chemicals and reagents, and a waste of the materials used to make the vial that vaccine came in. Now these will have to be disposed of without having been of use to anyone.
That wasted ₱5.1 billion? Yes, it could been used differently to help others too.
Whoever is running the show when it comes to utilizing these vaccines should do a better job. If we waste the vaccines we have private groups, international organizations, and other countries may not be so gracious when it comes to sharing what vaccines they have the next time we ask for them.