Why over one million doses of vaccines expired in Nigeria – Onu

MINISTER of Science Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has re­vealed that over one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated to Nigeria expired, because the vaccines came into the country very close to their expiration date.

  Onu, disclosed this in Abuja yesterday during a meet­ing with scientists, research­ers and traditional medicine practitioners on claims of effectiveness of COVID-19 herbal remedies and natural compounds, said Nigeria and other African countries have not received fair treatment in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines by developed coun­tries.

  According to him, many countries in Africa and other parts of the developing world have not benefited equitably from the remarkable success­es recorded so far.

  “Disproportionate access to vaccines has left many peo­ple in poor countries unvacci­nated, leading to a widening vaccination gap between technologically developed and developing countries. We have seen the adverse effect of vaccine nationalism, whereby countries that pro­duce vaccines want to hold on to those vaccines for the use of their citizens.

This is being done ir­respective of the fact that COVID-19 is a global disease, which can only be effectively controlled when access to vac­cines is made available to all parts of the world. We have unfortunately seen a situation when vac­cines are donated to countries at a time that they are about to expire. As many as one million doses of vaccines donated to Nigeria, expired because they came into the country very close to its expiration date,” he said.