Bosnia threw away some of the AstraZeneca cans donated by Austria
“Today’s handover of the donation from the Republic of Austria in the form of 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine is a clear act of friendship.” With these words, Dušan Kojić opened his acceptance speech on August 10 of this year. “Today’s delivery is an act of solidarity with Bosnia and Herzegovina, (…) our common interest is to guarantee the availability of effective vaccines in the countries of the Western Balkans,” replied Ulrike Hartmann, Austria’s ambassador in Sarajevo, the spokesman for Bosnian Herzegovinian Ministry of Civil Affairs. At the time, neither of them could have guessed that a large part of the donations would end up in the trash months later.
“Unfortunately we are disposing of some of the donated vaccines,” Kojić confirmed to the KURIER. The expiry date of the vaccine has expired. The AstraZeneca vaccinations last six months, those donated by Austria expired in October and November. The responsible Bosnian authorities fail to inoculate the vaccines within the period of two or three months.
uncertainty
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the donation. This vaccination for our country was the first real test with which we could check the vaccination readiness in the population”, Kojić said again and expressed his regret that part of the expenditure could not be inoculated. “There are several explanations for the moderate vaccination quota. First and foremost, it should be the general vaccination quota, but also the uncertainty associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has arisen due to the increased occurrence of side effects.”
He does not have the exact number of cans that need to be disposed of. “When disposing of expired vaccines, no evidence is kept of the contingent from which they originate”.