Covid vaccine shelf life may create supply vacuums

Global Covid vaccine rollout has come across a major pitfall as inefficiencies in rollout have caused some vaccines to expire past their shelf life before they could be administered to the public.

This has most recently been seen in Malawi. which was forced to burn a little under 20,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last month despite assurances that the shelf life would allow for rollout.

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Many shots in the nation were marked with an expiry date of April 13, although the manufacturer has hinted it may be safe to use the vaccines for a further three months.

The country's health minister Khumbize Chiponda revealed the country will be extending the shelf life of the vaccines to "maintain confidence" in the vaccination scheme.

There have been issues of wealthier countries hoarding vaccines, which could create a significant supply vacuum should more doses fail to reach particularly vulnerable places.

Many of these countries also have far worse healthcare access, likely meaning the general death toll and effects from the Covid pandemic will be far more severe.

A March report from UNAids claimed that, at the time, many richer countries were vaccinating one person every second, whereas poorer nations had yet to inoculate a single person.

This has since changed as a result of vaccine intervention schemes from major players such as the EU, which is allowing for a supply of vaccines - albeit in relatively small numbers - to reach poorer countries.

The topic of vaccines expiry dates is causing issues worldwide.

The issue has caused some countries to manually extend the shelf life of major vaccines in order to allow for rollout and prevent surplus vaccines from falling out of use.

Health Canada on Sunday revealed that its plans to push back the expiry date of nearly 50,000 vaccines from May 30 to July first was "backed by science."

A spokesperson for the firm estimated there were 49,000 AstraZeneca shots with a May 31 expiry date.

Officials had previously approved a six-month shelf life or AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine.

More than 55% of Canada's population has been inoculated since vaccine rollout began a few months ago. As of the latest estimates by the Canadian "Covid tracker" app, 91% of all vaccines delivered to the provinces have been delivered.

On May 20, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved a design that improves vaccine storage, which is set to allow an increase in vaccine storage from 5 to 30 days, the government claims.

This specifically applies to the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, which should make longer-range transportation easier and allow for greater efficiency when giving out shots.

Hong Kong is also reportedly struggling to vaccinate its large population, Hawaii Public Radio reports.

These shortfalls are primarily attributed to the jabs' expiry date and not supply, as the city-state looks to administer jabs to its 7.5 million residents.

Hong Kong commenced vaccine rollout back in February and has currently inoculated over 2.5 million residents.

Read more: Mixing Covid vaccines is safe, but increases chance for side-effects

As of May 30, more than 1.8 billion Covid vaccine doses have been given to people worldwide.

China, the US, India, Brazil and the UK currently lead in terms of doses given, all with over 60 million jabs deployed.

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