In 2021, after nearly 18 years of translating the Arabic media, Mideastwire.com’s core editorial team - Nicholas Noe, Mirella Dagher, Zeina Rouheib, Mohamed-Dhia Hammami and Ibrahim Jouhari, launched our Value Checking effort. Mideastwire.com's original purpose has therefore expanded: To reliably translate key articles appearing in the Arabic media but also to regularly provide objective, fact-based Value Checks in Arabic and English for some of the pieces that we think our subscribers, as well as the public at large, will benefit from in furthering their own understanding of the Middle East and beyond. Indeed, as in most other parts of the global media-scape, the Arabic media also suffers from misinformation, a lack of context and poor transparency, especially when allowing readers to easily understand the sources for various claims.

Our Value Checking Mission

Date: September 21, 2021


Will more than 100 million doses of COVID vaccines that are nearing their expiration date have to be thrown away?


Lead Fact Checker: Nicholas Noe

Feedback Contact: info@arabmediafactcheck.org

Fact Check Assessment: True But Misleading

On September 21, 2021, the Al-Manar website owned by Lebanon’s Hezbollah party carried an unattributed report (one free, unfortunately, of any links to online references) that reported, “Data analytics firm Airfinity has warned that more than 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines worldwide will expire by the end of the year - meaning they will be wasted if they are not quickly redistributed.” The Al-Manar piece went on to stress another disturbing conclusion from Airfinity, that the 100 million soon-to-expire doses could vaccinate up to 70 percent of people in low and middle-income countries against COVID.


While the Airfinity report does indeed make both of these claims here, because Al-Manar merely echoes what the report said instead of interrogating the issue itself, it failed to point out a research flaw in the Airfinity report itself. According to Airfinity’s September 20, 2021 PowerPoint presentation, almost all of the vaccines are calculated to expire within 6 months:

However, only a few weeks before Airfinity unveiled its own report, on August 30, 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration announced it had approved “Pfizer-BioNTech extending the expiration dates of COVID-19 Vaccine from six to nine months. Cartons and vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may remain in use for 3 months beyond the expiry date printed on the label as long as authorized storage conditions between -90°C to - 60°C (-130°F to -76°F) have been maintained.” Although the FDA did not extend other vaccines - it did, however, announce that some Moderna vaccines were likely to also gain an extension - the extension of the popular and widely used Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine will at least buy some more time for a portion of the estimated more than 100 million soon-to-expire doses.

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