In 2022, a shortage of special medical syringes may occur in the world, which are used for vaccination from COVID-19. This was stated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2021, more than 6.8 billion vaccinations from COVID-19 were made. It is comparable to the number of produced syringes – six billion pieces per year, Lisa Hedman said, the Senior WHO Adviser on Access to Medicines and Health Products. She is confident that manufacturers worldwide need to find a way to increase the production of disposable syringes. According to Hedman, if not to correct this ratio of used and manufactured medical instruments, the world may encounter their deficit already in 2022, while the lack can reach two billion syringes.
“Vaccination from COVID-19 is not the situation in which we can afford to allow a shortage of something or use some workarounds. The safety of patients and medical personnel is important,” said the representative of WHO. She noted that the shortage of syringes, in turn, can lead to delays in vaccination of children around the world, and also encourage poor countries to start reuse needles, which is extremely unsafe practice. The shortage of syringes can adversely affect the usual vaccinations from other diseases. Problems may also arise from logistics. The syringes are more susceptible to transportation delays, because they take ten times more space than, for example, flasks with vaccines.
UNICEF Foundation, acting under the auspices of the UN, warned about the shortage of syringes at the end of October 2021. He also predicted that in 2022 the world could face a shortage of 2.2 billion syringes. WHO repeatedly called on rich countries to support vaccination efforts in poorer countries, stressing that access to vaccines around the world will allow you to quickly cope with a pandemic and reduce the risk of new COVID-19 options.
More equitable distribution of vaccines and increasing funding from rich countries earlier requested UN Secretary-General Anthony Guterry. He called on the G-20 to help in the implementation of a coronavirus vaccination program worldwide. In his opinion, this will help the poor, including, adapt to the conditions of global warming.