Innsbruck (OTS) – The never-ending series of bankruptcies and breakdowns surrounding the national vaccination campaign is increasingly annoying people. The struggle for the controversial AstraZeneca active ingredient is also causing uncertainty.
By Mario Zenhäusern
The vaccinations against the coronavirus are not a lucky star. At first, the EU Commission failed across the board when it came to ordering the vaccines for the 27 member states. Although the European Union pre-financed the development of the urgently needed vaccine with billions of euros, Europe had to take a back seat. Other countries were more successful: Israel, for example, is already through with the first partial immunization, in Great Britain, which has just left the EU, almost 40 percent of the population have been vaccinated at least once. For comparison: In Austria, 10.63 percent of the population have currently received the first dose, with 3.7 percent the vaccination protection is complete by administering the second dose.
To make matters worse, the vaccinations started more than sluggishly in individual nation states. Austria was no exception, on the contrary: the lack of vaccination plans and the pushing forward of mayors and wives caused great anger among those willing to be vaccinated. In addition, there were suddenly delivery problems with the producers and – as if that wasn’t enough – repeated reports that the AstraZeneca vaccine was on the one hand less effective (against mutations) and on the other hand would cause serious side effects. Although no reliable data are yet available, numerous European countries have initiated a temporary halt to vaccination with AstraZeneca in response to these fears.
This never-ending series of bankruptcies and breakdowns unsettles the population and harms the vaccination campaign, without which a return to normalcy is not possible. Hardly anyone is currently giving the AstraZeneca active ingredient with a good feeling. Vaccination is also a matter of trust. Only a clear statement from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) could either restore the badly battered image – or do the opposite: a Europe-wide stop. Yesterday, the EMA experts only announced that the benefits of AstraZeneca’s corona vaccine “until the ongoing investigations are completed” would be greater than the dangers, the benefits would outweigh the risk. A confidence-building statement looks different. Time is running out. Every further delay multiplies the uncertainty of the people.
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