Kirsty Mckenzie
A STAGGERING number of coronavirus vaccines has been discarded by the Community of Madrid since the vaccination campaign began in Spain.
Council chiefs have admitted that 117,977 vaccines against COVID-19 were thrown away over the last 12 months.
The jabs were either tossed out because they were broken or had expired, officials said.
According to information gained by the Ministry of Health, the Community of Madrid got rid of 47,450 Janssen vaccines which passed their expiry date and a further 41,270 jabs from AstraZeneca.
Some 17,070 Moderna and 744 Pfizer vaccines were also disposed of.
Discarded vaccines represent 1.08% of all the doses that the Ministry of Health has delivered to Madrid.
It comes after a study by research group Airfinity said that 100 million stockpiled Covid vaccines will expire by the end of the year.
The research, sent out to world leaders by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said?? the world’s poorest countries will pay for the vaccine waste in lives lost.
He added that while 12billion vaccines will be available worldwide by December, the crucial issue is where the vaccines will be distributed, adding there was no agreement on who will provide low income countries with the jabs by the end of the year.
“It is unthinkable and unconscionable that 100 million vaccines will have to be thrown away from the stockpiles of the rich countries whilst the populations of the world’s poorest countries will pay for our vaccine waste in lives lost,” he said.
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