16 years ago, we had not seen such a high amount wasted on expired vaccines in Brazil. The value of more than R$ 1.7 billion wasted, recorded even before the end of the second year of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) third term, only does not surpass the previous value of R$ 1.96 billion recorded in Lula 2 government.
The Lula 3 government also records a record number of vaccines lost per government. 58.7 million expired vaccines have already been lost since Lula took office in 2023. The number exceeds by 22% the amount wasted in the four years that former president Jair Bolsonaro was in power, when 48.2 million vaccines were discarded because they were not used within the expiration date.
The data was obtained by newspaper O Globo through the Access to Information Law (LAI), with the Ministry of Health.
The waste of vaccines came to light after reports of a lack of vaccines against Covid-19 in at least 18 states in Brazil.
To the newspaper O Globothe Ministry of Health reported that it is changing the way it distributes vaccines to avoid waste. Among the measures that must be adopted, the government must request “delivery in installments by the contracted laboratory and the possibility of exchange for the most current version approved by Anvisa”.
Furthermore, the department led by minister Nísia Trindade attributed part of the losses to doses received from the previous administration. “The vaccines that expired in 2023 were a reflection of stocks inherited from the previous administration and systematic disinformation campaigns that generate distrust about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, impacting the population’s adherence”, states the ministry, in a note.
Health incinerated 2.3 million vials of expired vaccines this year
Last week, the People’s Gazette confirmed the information that the Ministry of Health had incinerated 2.3 million vials of vaccines this year, which represents 1.72% of the total distributed since 2023.
In principle, the number of wasted doses may have been higher, because a single vial, depending on the vaccine, may contain more than one application dose.
In a statement, the Ministry reported that most of the vials are Covid-19 vaccines, and pointed out that this is due to “systematic disinformation campaigns that generate distrust about the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, impacting population adherence”.
