Lithuania destroyed 2.5 million vaccine doses; other EU countries have disposed of even more

Tuesday, Jan 13, 2026

Scandals reveal excessive, overpriced, and unusable pandemic purchases across Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, and Germany.

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[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Various countries faced issues with pandemic-related purchases. In Poland, there were scandals involving overpriced and unusable ventilators bought from an ex-arms dealer, and the procurement of non-certified masks for medical staff. In Lithuania, prosecutors are investigating the mass destruction of expired vaccines purchased with EU funds. Romania’s former prime minister and health ministers faced charges related to ordering significantly more COVID-19 vaccine doses than needed, resulting in a loss exceeding one billion euros. Other nations also overbought supplies; Sweden bought far more vaccines than its population required, and Germany purchased nearly 400 million doses while only using about 83 million. Hungary’s government heavily invested in purchasing ventilators from Asian companies, primarily China, despite having very few predicted needs, with most of the acquired equipment remaining unused.


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