After two years of struggling to procure Covid-19 vaccines, Africa is facing a new problem: the capacity to absorb and deploy waves of new donations, many of which come with a very short shelf life
PLC shots with short shelf lives have expired in at least 23 lower-income countries, a spokeswoman for Covax said. “High-income countries with excess supply often do not even closely monitor wastage rates,” she said.
A spokesman for Russia’s foreign ministry said that some Sputnik doses expired in Namibia and have since been destroyed. “African countries are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they say no to donations that will soon expire the world starts saying they don’t have capacity and yet they’re asked to deploy much faster than rich countries,” said Ayoade Alakija, a Nigerian doctor and co-chair of the African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, a campaign group.
Kate O’Brien, head of the WHO’s immunization program, says the prevalence of vaccines with short shelf lives makes it impossible for recipient countries to roll them out in large numbers. Also, some vaccine makers aren’t always providing Covax with sufficient notice on how many vaccines will be ready and when.
Hiring personnel is also difficult, according to United Nations officials, after a year when several of the continent’s cash-strapped governments have struggled to pay medics’ wages. Rollouts also have been hampered by community skepticism toward the vaccines, driven by religious beliefs, mistrust of Western drug companies and local governments. Insufficient education about Covid-19 vaccines enables rumors to spread more easily.