2023-10-24 17:20:00
When the coronavirus pandemic hit Belgium, federal ministers worked urgently to stem the multiple waves which caused hundreds of deaths among the Belgian population. In terms of health, we have seen the big picture. But in the rush, not everything was calculated well and some orders turned out to be useless.
This is what we understand when reading a note produced by the FPS Public Health this summer. This document lists medical equipment ordered unnecessarily and which must be destroyed without delay. According to our information, this destruction must take place this week. We are talking regarding a hundred trucks filled with expired and never-used equipment, the total cost of which is around 120 million euros.
N-VA’s Kathleen Depoorter poses during a photoshoot, Thursday 20 June 2019, at the Chamber at the federal parliament in Brussels. BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE
”The federal strategic stock, acquired since the start of the Corona pandemic, currently contains a portion of goods that are expired, of poor quality or which can no longer be used (for example, vaccines once morest the first variant). After a first phase of destruction, approved by the Council of Ministers on April 1, 2022, there are once more goods which are no longer used and which must therefore be destroyed,” indicates the note from the FPS Public Health.
These products are as follows. 56,382,280 pieces of personal protective equipment deemed non-compliant or expired will be destroyed. These are surgical masks, FFP2 masks, gowns and gloves worth just over 33 million euros. 3,108 medical devices (catheters, electrodes, valves, etc.) for an amount of 16,239.22 euros must be eliminated. 5,478.30 active pharmaceutical ingredients also go in the trash as well as 3,789 drugs useful in the treatment of covid, including Hydroxychloroquine and Midazolam.
37,553 vials of Covid vaccines are also thrown away. This represents 3,502,190 doses of various vaccines (Nuvaxovid, Comirnaty, Janssen and Spikevax) purchased in 2021 and 2022. The total value of these vaccines is 80,218,021.50 euros. Note that these doses only represent 6.45% of all vaccine doses planned to date for Belgium (54.3 million).
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During the health crisis, “there was a lot of uncertainty” regarding the different vaccines under development, the note specifies. “During the Covid crisis, Belgium participated in the European group purchase of the various COVID vaccines (the “Advanced Purchase Agreements” that the European Commission concluded with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax). In this way, the risk was distributed and, following approval within the CIM Public Health (where all the governments of this country are represented) on the basis of various scientific opinions, Belgium was able to ensure that it would soon have enough vaccines to vaccinate its population. As many of the vaccines developed ultimately proved effective, a surplus logically resulted.”
Finally, some 346,000 other products used for vaccination (needles, syringes, physiological serum, etc.) will be eliminated. That’s around 40,000 euros going down the drain.
Federal MP and professional pharmacist Kathleen Depoorter (N-VA) regrets this mismanagement. “The law prohibits the sale of substandard masks, but the state has not sought other uses for this material. However, I see lots of needs all over the world. The masks might be used in the war in Ukraine or donated to NGOs. The testing equipment for federal labs might also have been used at universities.”
The nationalist MP will question the Minister of Health in parliament regarding this waste.
COVID medical equipment destroyed ©IPM Graphics
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