COVID-19: how Nigeria destroyed more than a million vaccines

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and with a covid inoculation rate of just 5%, destroyed more than a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday.

The destruction of the product came more than a week after authorities claimed that some of the doses of the vaccine donated by wealthy western countries were just a few more weeks old.

Government health officials and journalists observed how the trucks loading thousands of boxes with vaccine vials dumped them in a landfill on the outskirts of the capital Abuja, only to be crushed and buried by a bulldozer.

The government said it took the measure to assure a public distrustful of inoculation that they would not be using expired vaccines.

“We have successfully withdrawn 1,066,214 doses of expired AstraZeneca vaccines. We have kept our promise to be transparent with Nigerians, “said Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Agency for Primary Health Care Development.

In an interview with the BBC, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the failure of vaccine distribution to poorer countries “a stain on our global soul.”

Nigeria’s Ministry of Health said some of the donated vaccines were delivered to it close to their expiration date, posing serious logistical challenges, with limited time to distribute and administer them.

Also, because vaccines can arrive one after another, bottlenecks occasionally emerged, he added.

WHO and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for a change in the way donations are made, to allow countries to prepare their distribution and avoid waste.

• Covid: Why Nigeria Will Destroy One Million Vaccine Doses

In Nigeria, about one in 20 people have received a coronavirus vaccine. In Ethiopia the vaccination rate is just 8%.

Only one in four African health workers has been vaccinated.

Some experts have linked the emergence of new variants like omicron to low vaccination rates.