[ad_1]
With polls pointing to high levels of vacillation in countries from France to Poland, European Union leaders from 27 countries are touting it as the best chance to get back to something like normal life next year.
“We are starting to turn the page in a difficult year,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission who is coordinating the program, said in a tweet.
“Vaccination is the lasting way out of the pandemic.”
JUMP THE GUN
After European governments were criticized for not working together to counter the spread of the virus in early 2020, the goal this time is to ensure that there is equal access to vaccines throughout the region.
But even then, Hungary was ahead of the official launch on Saturday by starting to give injections of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine to front-line workers at hospitals in the capital Budapest.
Slovakia also went ahead with some vaccinations for health workers on Saturday and in Germany, a small number of people in a nursing home were also vaccinated a day earlier.
“We don’t want to waste that day when the vaccine loses its shelf life. We want to use it immediately, ”Karsten Fischer of the Harz district pandemic staff in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt told local broadcaster MDR.
Pfizer-BioNTech injection distribution presents difficult challenges. The vaccine uses new mRNA technology and must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of approximately -70 ° C.
[ad_2]
