Australia should send millions of ‘spare’ AstraZeneca overseas

Australia must send its 6 million excess doses of AstraZeneca overseas to help struggling countries and ensure the highly-effective vaccine brand does not go to waste.

Writing in the Lowy Institute on Tuesday, McNamara MP Josh Burns urged the government not to leave the nation’s hefty stockpile of spare AstraZeneca jabs to sit in storage until they reach their expiry date.

“Despite having a shortage of supply during the crucial winter months that led to extended lockdowns for major cities, Australia now has the reverse dilemma – a growing stockpile of over six million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines sitting in fridges and an ongoing production of one million doses a week,” Mr Burns said.

“Australia must not let what is a remarkably good and overwhelmingly safe vaccine expire.”

Mr Burns urged the government to send the excess to Australia’s close neighbour Indonesia instead.

As a nation made up of thousands of scattered islands, Indonesia has struggled to inoculate its population.

At present, only 20 per cent of the Indonesian population has been fully vaccinated, with around 35 per cent having received at least one dose.

“In the middle of this pandemic, every vaccine is precious,” Mr Burns said.

“Indonesia has a vacuum of need for vaccines that is predominantly being filled by China, and yet Australia happens to have millions of spare doses that could save thousands of Indonesian lives.”

Chinese-made Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are currently the only mainstream option in Indonesia, who has had to restrict their limited Moderna supplies to the nation’s most at-risk healthcare workers.

“The AstraZeneca vaccines are more efficacious than the Chinese vaccines and make Australia an attractive partner for Indonesia and its largely unvaccinated population,” Mr Burns said.

The McNamara MP argued that not only would sending vaccines to Indonesia be advantageous to Australia from a strategic diplomatic standpoint, it was also the morally correct thing to do.

“Indonesia has already suffered a deadly second Covid wave, peaking in July of this year, and the risk of a third one is on the horizon,” Mr Burns said.

“It would be negligent to hold onto the millions of spare AstraZeneca doses while friends are battling this pandemic without enough protection.”