IRELAND South MEP, Seán Kelly, has called for Department of Health to ensure that all excess supply of vaccines be sent to third countries to avoid unnecessary waste.
“The start of the year was particularly tough for the country, but since supply issues in the early stages of the vaccination deployment were ironed out it has gone from strength-to-strength. Much of the credit must go to the health authorities and the government for this, as well as the excellent cooperation and efforts of the population. The numbers speak for themselves in this regard, and it is something we all should be proud of”, Kelly said.
“The difficulties and worry caused by the new Delta variant are plain to see, yet we must not forget that there are many countries that do not have the same access to vaccines as we do”.
“We therefore need to utilise every drop, and if we have over supply, we must export the excess to help those in need. There is no sense in having a situation where vaccines are destroyed just because they were kept beyond their expiration dates”, he added.
“It is positive that the HSE have started counting the remaining Janssen doses in mass vaccination centres, but at this point the priority in the national policy must be avoiding waste with excess going to countries with low rates of deployment.”
