Austria’s health minister is under renewed political pressure after millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses appear to be unaccounted for in official records, reviving long-running disputes over the country’s pandemic management, according to Die Presse.
The controversy emerged from a parliamentary inquiry by opposition lawmaker Harald Schuh of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). In her written reply dated 16 February 2026, Health Minister Korinna Schumann said 61.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been delivered to Austria since the start of the vaccination campaign, including shipments later transferred abroad.
Yet the national electronic vaccination register shows only 21.9 million recorded injections. Another 26.6 million doses were destroyed, figures first reported by the free daily Heute. That leaves a numerical gap of about 13.3 million doses. The ministry says roughly 1.5 million remain stored with a federally contracted pharmaceutical wholesaler, but the location or status of the remaining 11.8 million cannot be clearly established.
Schumann argued that incomplete documentation may explain part of the discrepancy. Only vaccinations entered into the digital registry are counted, she noted, and some injections may have occurred without electronic entry. Additional losses can arise from routine wastage in clinics such as opened multi dose vials that could not be fully used or excess orders that later expired.
The ministry also acknowledged that unknown quantities of usable vaccine may still be stored across hospitals, medical practices, and care facilities, outside any central stock system. Officials say these decentralized inventories cannot be reliably measured. Austria still has obligations to accept about 270,000 more doses this year, though no further purchases are planned.
Of the destroyed vaccines, about 15 million came from BioNTech/Pfizer and roughly 6.5 million from Moderna. Disposal cost around €200,000. The figures echo earlier criticism from the Austrian Court of Audit (Rechnungshof), which in 2023 faulted Austria’s vaccine procurement strategy.
