KARACHI:
Recently, there have been reports in media on wastage of Covid-19 vaccines, but the concerned Punjab government department dismissed the issue as normal. We should not trivialise the problem of wastage, and make a collaborative effort to minimise it. This will be possible when authorities issuing guidelines on usage of vaccination acknowledge the problem and outline best practices on vaccine wastage.
Globally, doctors and hospital administrators are facing the challenge of vaccine wastage due to several reasons such as storage and transport issues, expiry deadlines, syringe issues, etc. They are left to sort through the dilemma on their own in emergency situations, confronted with the burden of choosing between state-issued guidelines and wasting vaccine doses. As Pakistan is about to receive Moderna vaccine and has already received Pfizer, wastage guidelines have become even more important because there is a window of only a few hours when these can be used after being thawed.
The NCOC should consider giving a contingency plan by ranking priority groups. For example, if a vaccine is approved only for immune-compromised patients, this group should be ranked the highest, followed by other suitable groups such as care-givers of patients, and so on. A concerted effort by all stakeholders is needed to minimise wastage of vaccine.
Mariam Khan
Lahore
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2021.
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