DOH defends purchase of ‘wasted’ COVID-19 vaccines: It was an emergency

Facade of the Department of Health office in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Department of Health (DOH) defended on Thursday the procurement of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines that eventually went to waste, saying it was done to save lives during a global emergency.

“The COVID-19 vaccination exercise did not have the benefit of years of planning and preparation like other routine and established vaccination programs. It was an emergency, a matter of life and death,” the DOH said in a statement.

When the pandemic struck, the Philippines, like other countries at the time, “decided to procure more COVID-19 vaccines available for all Filipinos at the soonest possible time, than none at all,” it added.

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“Even as the national government advised all concerned that it would be procuring for all Filipinos, some local government units and private sector entities insisted on procuring their own vaccines,” the DOH said.

In addition, the country also received millions of vaccine donations from the Covax facility and bilateral channels (i.e., country-to-country), it noted.

The DOH statement was in reaction to a Commission on Audit (COA) report that flagged the agency for wasting over P11 billion worth of drugs, medicines, and medical supplies, including over seven million vials of COVID-19 vaccines, that expired in 2023.

According to state auditors, the wastage of government funds and resources was a result of “inadequate procurement planning and poor distribution and monitoring systems.”

They noted in the audit report that the vaccines expired without being used due to “the nonwillingness of priority group [to get] the succeeding booster shots, particularly senior citizens; reluctance of [local government units] and health facilities in accepting the vaccines due to lack [of] cold room storage and doubt if they could consume the same; and most of the quarantine or expired vaccines delivered were already [beyond their extended shelf] life.”

Of the expired vaccines, more than 5.4 million were procured by the DOH central office, while the remaining 1.5 million were donations to various offices or centers for health development.

According to government data, the Philippines received a total of 245.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from 2021 to 2022, of which 45 percent or 110 million doses were donated, mostly by the Covax facility.

Of the total number of vaccines that arrived in the country, only 181.6 million, or around 74 percent were administered—with the remaining 26 percent considered wasted.