Sausage Bus – If It Weren’t Stupid It Would Look Like A Diversion, Analyze

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Concerns and doubts about the safety of vaccines are already shared by many people outside the traditional anti-vaccines. And the false start with the sausage bus reveals all the helplessness of the Bulgarian authorities, commented the author for “Deutsche Welle”.

It would have been better if the first shipment of Kovid-19 vaccines had been transported to Bulgaria in Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s “jeep”. After all, it doesn’t matter where the vaccines will be placed, in boxes with dry ice, guaranteeing the required transfer temperature? Obviously, it can be any vehicle, after the state company BulBio, which imports them, deviated from the requirements of the Law of Medicines in Human Medicine, choosing a minibus for sausages for the first delivery of vaccines.

To top it all, the car of the private company Bella Bulgaria was also marked with an advertisement for one of its products: Leki sausages. The tragicomedy continued with the placement of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in a 40-year-old Soviet ZIL refrigerator in RHI-Plovdiv. The argument: it had a handle and could be closed with … a padlock, although the requirement is to be in a freezer at minus 70 degrees, where they can be stored for up to 6 months after delivery.

By comparison, in Greece, the first shipment of vaccines arrived in a special refrigerated van escorted by six police cars. The transport is carried out by the private Polish company SL Express, which offers refrigerated and pharmaceutical express transport throughout Europe and part of Asia. Your Mercedes-Benz vehicles are equipped with cold storage boxes that allow you to control the temperature at any time during the journey.

But why sausages …

In addition to provoking a wave of teasing and witty comments, the logistics of the first installment showed at least two problems, and communication was the first of them. Of course, the journalists asked for a comment from the Minister of Health, Prof. Kostadin Angelov, on the bus transportation of sausages, and he tried to change the angle. “For me, the demand for emphasis in this direction is not acceptable, because Bulgaria is not the only country where it helps to transport, in the United States, specialization, Canadian specialization and“ private delivery ”. and ice cream.

Since the days of socialism, some of the cheaper hot dogs, like hot dogs, have been the subject of jokes about their contents: veins, trimmings, too much bacon, nitrites, and some have joked that they also put toilet paper in. Even today, despite the advertisements and the content described on the packaging, hot dogs have a bad reputation for being a low-quality product. The decision to get the first shipment of vaccines by bus, from the sausage brand, was undoubtedly made by enough responsible employees in press centers and media teams. None of these “brains” have a red light that this is the worst possible vaccine advertisement. If it wasn’t stupid, it would look like sabotage.

How to guarantee the temperature

Over the weekend, reports emerged that several cities in the German state of Bavaria had delayed vaccinations due to suspicions of a broken temperature chain in the delivery of vaccines to Pfizer-BioNTech. Concerns arose after reading the data on the refrigerated boxes in which the vaccines were stored.

According to the explanations of the Bulgarian Minister of Health, the minibus was used for the delivery of sausages due to the thermograph, which made it possible to monitor the temperature regime at all times. Obviously, Professor Angelov is not afraid that the temperature in the vehicle may be violated. In a statement to the media, Bella Bulgaria also announced that its buses are equipped with “the most modern refrigeration equipment.” In a comment on the subject of “Capital” they point out that “in order to get to the truck for the sausages, it means that the state company (” BulBio “, ba) did not have a specialized refrigerated car, which questions exactly how it transports its own their production and what is written in their license for drug wholesaler “.

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The conclusions

Neither the delivery of vaccines against Kovid-19 is a simple logistics for the supply of medicines, nor the vaccination process, the usual prevention against influenza. Vaccines are provided through an EU procurement plan, and the vaccination process will demonstrate whether the Community is capable of strong enough coordination and unity given the criticism at the start of the pandemic. At that time, each country fought in a separate way to provide as many masks and protective clothing as possible for its doctors and population. Vaccine delivery and storage are also quite different from traditional supply infrastructure.

Switzerland and seven EU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) have already agreed to coordinate their vaccination strategies. The aim is also to facilitate the exchange of information for cross-border workers.

The Bulgarian rulers do not show much enthusiasm. The lack of a targeted campaign contributes to the increase in the already high levels of hesitation regarding vaccination in the country. Unlike Greece, whose health minister announced the goal, to vaccinate all Greeks over the age of 18, more than 2.5 million a month, Bulgaria has no such ambitions. From the government and the political class in front of the cameras, only the Minister of Health and prominent doctors from Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas are publicly vaccinated. One possible argument is that according to the national plan, doctors and nurses are vaccinated in the first phase. In other places, however, regardless of the plan, the government set a personal example. In neighboring Greece, the prime minister, the president and the speaker of parliament were vaccinated within one day.

Lack of a clear awareness campaign

Despite television images and phrases such as “we already have a weapon against the virus”, there is no clear and transparent campaign in Bulgaria on the need for vaccines, as recommended by the European Commission. Fluctuations and doubts about its safety, due to the short development and testing period, are shared by many people outside of traditional vaccines. With well-targeted communication, fears can be allayed and thus the spread of the pandemic can be controlled.

Will there be a national registry of vaccinated? It is another topic that the Bulgarian government does not talk about, despite frequent speculation that vaccination against Kovid-19 could become a “passport” for travel. The upcoming parliamentary elections and the electoral campaign in the midst of the vaccination process will only worsen the situation, both with the provision of vaccines and with their implementation. Another challenge for health authorities is ensuring effective monitoring so that the second dose of the vaccine is not missed.

The success or failure of vaccination against Kovid-19 in Bulgaria is not an isolated action, but part of the coordinated EU response to the pandemic that caused the global crisis. The sausage van is the Bulgarian metaphor for effort.