Dr Lee Boon Chye, a former deputy health minister, asked the question when speaking to FMT about destroyed vaccines.
Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told a press conference that Malaysia had five to six million doses left in stock after expired doses were destroyed because of poor demand.
Lee said the disposal showed a mismatch between demand and procurement planning.
He called for transparency, saying the health ministry must explain why there was a huge order for vaccines when there was no demand.
He told the ministry to disclose the value of the vaccines destroyed, specify the dates of purchase and explain whether the vaccines were near their expiry dates.
“I am sure there is a need for vaccination, especially for rural communities,” he said. “Why did we throw away all these vaccines?”
“The ministry has to say how many doses of Pfizer, Sinovac, CanSino and AstraZeneca were disposed of. Were the vaccines nearing their expiry dates but the manufacturers just dumped them upon us?”
Lee also asked the ministry to explain the reasons for the low uptake of booster vaccines.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in December that only 49.8% of the population had received the first booster dose and 1.9% had received the second booster dose.
Azrul Khalib, CEO of the think tank Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy, backed Lee’s demand for the ministry to explain the wastage, saying it was a governance and accountability issue as billions of ringgit in public funds were used to procure the vaccines.
He told FMT he found it “incredible” that there was wastage when many communities and many countries barely had access to Covid-19 vaccines.
“This is disappointing as Malaysia is rather privileged in being able to provide sufficient cover for its population against Covid 19 with not just the primary jabs but also the follow-up boosters,” he said.
“Yet many Malaysians are unwilling to take advantage of these vaccines, which come to them at no cost.”
Lee said vaccine disposal practices were done at a low rate by US, India and some African and European countries.
In the case of African countries, he said, vaccine disposal happened because they were given stocks close to their expiry dates and they could not administer the doses in time.
Azrul said the wastage rate was usually between 5% and 25%, depending on the type of vaccine and the number of doses per vial.
“For the Covid-19 vaccines, the expected rate determined by Covid 19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) is 10%,” he said.