In a statement released to the press last April 19, 2022, Romanian Minister of Health Alexandru Rafila said that the ministry had the opportunity to refuse the purchase of new doses of the vaccine, but instead bought an additional 40 million which are in excess of what the country needs.

Former prime minister Florin Cîțu defended the purchase of the unnecessary doses saying that the decision was made by the European Commission. Cîțu said, “We can investigate [EC President] Ursula von der Leyen to see what she had in mind when she made this contract with the whole European Union.”

Editor’s Note: We have reported in 2020 that some countries are over-buying vaccine stocks [see Some countries have pre-ordered enough vaccines to immunize over 100% of their population]. Why?

Several countries are reporting thousands (if not millions) of vaccine doses are already near expiry [see South Africa might destroy 100,000 COVID vaccine doses by end of March 2022, Government Ramps Up Vaccination and Booster Shot Campaign Due to 27 Million Near-Expiry COVID Doses, COVID-19 vaccines in national stockpile starting to expire as uptake slows, Millions of dollars’ worth of COVID vaccine set to expire on Saturday, Some 3 million COVID vaccine doses to expire in Germany by end of June, 30m doses of COVID -19 vaccines may expire as Nigerians shun vaccination, Guatemala: As COVID misinformation spreads, vaccine doses expire].

Despite this, some countries are still ordering new vaccine doses [see Germany signs deal with CureVac, GSK for mRNA vaccines until 2029, 465K doses of reformulated Pfizer vaccine arrive in PH]. Why?

Who is pushing for these vaccine deals to continue, and why are governments powerless to stand against them? [See Poland braces for legal battle as it declines to take or pay for more COVID vaccines, Pfizer Controls Health Policy of 110 Countries, CCH Challenges the Duterte Government to Make Public Its Contract with Pfizer, Leaked Pfizer contracts show they knew of adverse effects and lack of long-term efficacy of vaccines].

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