At the pinnacle of the pandemic, European Union (EU) nations procured around 1.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, but an eye-opening analysis by "Politico" reveals a shocking truth: at least 215 million of these doses have been discarded, amounting to a staggering 4 billion euros in wasted vaccines.

The report highlights that EU countries, since the approval of the first coronavirus vaccines in late 2020, have collectively discarded a substantial portion of their vaccine stockpiles, averaging 0.7 doses per capita. Estonia tops this wastage list, discarding over 1 dose per inhabitant, followed by Germany, which disposed of a whopping 83 million doses.

Data for 19 EU member states, as cited by Politico, illustrates a disconcerting trend of vaccine wastage. For Bulgaria, the figures suggest a waste of 0.3 doses per capita, totaling 1,931,992 vaccines trashed.

Extrapolating these numbers to the entire EU could potentially indicate over 312 million discarded doses. "Politico" arrived at the estimated value of 215 million wasted vaccines by using reported prices from media sources, considering the lack of public information on vaccine costs. In cases where countries only disclosed total doses destroyed without specifying the type, an average cost of 19.39 euros was applied based on data provided by other nations.