Demand greatly overestimated
Switzerland has to dispose of millions of Covid vaccine doses
Huge quantities of vaccine doses against the corona virus do not find a buyer in Switzerland. Now millions of cans are thrown away.
1/5
The willingness to vaccinate in Switzerland is less than expected. (icon picture)
(Refresher) vaccinations against the coronavirus are also free of charge for the Swiss population in the current year. But the willingness to vaccinate against Covid has decreased significantly in recent months. Of those over 65, only 37 percent received either an initial vaccination or a booster in the past six months, reports the “NZZ”.
According to the report, Switzerland “miscalculated when ordering Covid vaccines”. The newspaper relies on figures from the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG). A total of 32.6 million doses were delivered to Switzerland by the deadline of December 27, 2022, of which almost 17 million were administered. Only 4.2 million cans went abroad.
Willingness to vaccinate less than expected
Thus, the calculation according to which any surpluses could easily be passed on to other countries did not work out. Because every batch of vaccine has an expiration date, Switzerland had to destroy millions of doses. Around 3.4 million vaccine doses were disposed of in this way by the end of 2022. This does not include, according to the “NZZ”, almost 7.8 million cans that Switzerland had stored in a warehouse in Belgium. Their disposal took place in the autumn.
According to the newspaper report, Switzerland is one of the countries in the world that has stocked up the most with vaccines relative to its population – according to the BAG, this is due to a “safety-based strategy”. (euros)