Counterfeit vaccines and medicines, which include substandard and falsified products, can undermine the efforts to control the pandemic. These products can’t prevent or treat Covid-19, thus contributing to its spread. People developing Covid-19 after getting counterfeit vaccines would erode trust in vaccination and contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Substandard and falsified drugs and vaccines could lead to a proliferation of variants of concern and ultimately lead to resistance down the road.
The WHO estimates that 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is falsified or substandard, causing huge personal and public health tolls are huge. The economic burden is as much as $200 billion a year.
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The presence of counterfeit vaccines could lead to an individual getting a fake vaccine for their second shot, giving the SARS-CoV-2 virus a chance to multiply and mutate in the host. Fake therapeutics could lead to repeat outbreaks in regions thought to have the disease under control.
Substandard and falsified products are also likely to disproportionately affect socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and countries in which the regulatory framework is weak. The erosion of trust in the system, among people in the regions where quality and fake medicines get mixed up, can have long-range implications for millions of people.
