According to Politico, the EU has disposed of at least 215 million doses of Covid-19 vaccinations since they were purchased at the height of the pandemic. In a report published on Sunday, the publication calculated that the cancelled vaccines cost the EU taxpayers up to €4 billion ($4.37 billion).
Following the approval of the first coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the EU quickly entered into a contract with the US pharmaceutical giant to purchase 1.1 billion doses in 2021 – a decision that received no scrutiny at the time but has since become the subject of an investigation in which EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen plays a controversial role.
Despite the fact that the pandemic was already over, the contract effectively required EU governments to purchase the doses. Politico reported that efforts to give the excess to developing countries had also failed due to logistical challenges and a drop in demand.
During the epidemic, the EU received at least 1.5 billion doses, or almost three shots per individual. According to Politico’s calculations, the member states ended up dumping an average of 0.7 jabs for every member of the population, with Estonia and Germany being the most wasteful, squandering nearly one dose per resident.
Because governments have been unwilling to publish or reveal the extent of the waste, the outlet admits that its assessments are simply approximations.
The EU’s wasteful and questionable deal with Pfizer has also resulted in political backlash, and von der Leyen has come under fire since it was revealed that she privately communicated with the pharmaceutical giant’s CEO Albert Bourla via text messages and phone calls while the deal was still being negotiated.
The Commission has refused to comment on the matter, claiming that Von der Leyen’s text communications with big pharma on multibillion-dollar transactions could not be found.
Meanwhile, Pfizer is suing Poland and Hungary for nonpayment after they refused to accept any more vaccines, and prosecutors in Romania are preparing to charge the country’s former prime minister and two health ministers with inflicting over €1 billion in damages.
Despite the reported wastefulness, the jabs will continue to flow to the EU under the Pfizer contract at least until 2027. The bloc was previously set to receive an additional 450 million doses in 2023 but under a revised deal in May, that total was brought down and spread over the next four years. Brussels, however, has not clarified how many doses are still yet to be received or how many each country will have to buy.
