Canada destroys 13m doses of Covid vaccine as it can’t find countries to take them

Canada is in the process of destroying 13.6 million expired doses of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine because it couldn’t find countries willing to take them.

Questions have also been raised about the fate of millions of doses of the Novavax and Medicago vaccines that Canada bought, but is unlikely to use.

The country previously announced that 1.2 million AstraZeneca vaccines would be donated to Covax, the international vaccine access programme set up by the World Health Organisation, or to individual countries.

Most of those vaccines had never left the manufacturers’ warehouses.

But now, Canada has said the vaccines had not been taken.

“Due to limited demand for the vaccine and recipient country challenges with distribution and absorption, they were not accepted,” Health Canada said in a statement.

The expired vaccines make up more than half of all doses that Canada bought.

At the start of the pandemic, Canada was criticised as one of the most aggressive buyers and hoarders of vaccines among wealthier countries.

In March 2021, the country faced further criticism when it became the only G7 country to draw vaccines from Covax, which was mainly designed to make vaccines more accessible for poorer countries.

But the Canadian government argued that it had paid far more into the programme than it had taken out, and pledged that any excess doses would be donated.

In spring 2021, Canada received over four million AstraZeneca doses, but when reports circulated about rare blood clotting events among some people who had received the vaccine, Canada stopped using it in under-55s.

Following the reports, public confidence in the vaccine fell and continued to wane with the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine.

Only about 2.3 million Canadians ever received the AstraZeneca jab. Canada ended up donating most of its doses from Covax back to the programme, part of 17.7 million doses it would offer to donate to other countries.

Bruce Aylward, a Canadian specialist in infectious diseases who advises WHO, told the Canadian Press in a recent interview that Canada’s lack of confidence in AstraZeneca contributed to vaccine hesitancy worldwide.

He said Canada first hoarded all vaccines, then stopped using AstraZeneca and offered it to poorer countries to fulfil its donation promise.

Mr Aylward added that an excess of doses of an unpopular vaccine in countries without the infrastructure to quickly deliver them made it more likely to be rejected and eventually expire.

“They’ve made it incredibly hard for political leaders in low-income countries to get coverage up,” he said.