Chakwera rebuffs WHO on use of expired COVID-19 vaccines

President Lazarus Chakwera has spoken against the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) stance on the use of expired #COVID19 vaccines.

Last month, Malawi destroyed about 16,000 doses of expired AstraZeneca vaccines.

This was despite the WHO’s assurance that expired jabs are still safe to use and should not be destroyed.

Speaking to CNN last night, Chakwera said he does not want Malawi to be perceived as a dumping ground that settles for whatever comes its way.

“We don’t want people thinking that we are just settling for anything that comes our way even if it is expired. People shouldn’t thinking that we are the dumping ground,” said Chakwera.

When asked if he does not trust the WHO, Chakwera said: “WHO has been saying a lot of things which have not been accepted everywhere uniformly and so what we are saying is we need to sensitize our people and is our duty to stand with our people so that we can move together. Its not a matter of trying to force everyone to take the vaccines but rather lobby everyone to do that so that we can save more lives.”

Malawi launched the its vaccination programme in March and Chakwera was the first person to get vaccinated.