Economy: flu vaccination is becoming a problem in Europe

Pharmaceutical companies around the world are working with steam power to produce flu vaccines, but this is not helping much this season. According to the magazine cowinestoday.eu, the production of vaccines takes a year and a half, the production of the doses that are now in stores or for doctors began last year, so in the best case, the new vaccines they can only reach patients in December or January. It also reduces the possibility of meeting the growing demand for vaccines to be specialty drugs, which is why only a few manufacturers are licensed to make them. Fortunately, several pharmaceutical companies began to expand production last year, so that up to 30 percent more vaccines have reached the countries of the continent than before.

The shortage, which is likely to further increase demand, has repeatedly sparked controversy and verbal confrontations, with reports from France, Britain and Germany that frustrated customers have insulted pharmacists or doctors. According to a report in the British Pharmaceutical Journal, while pharmacy providers in the island country emphasize that there is enough vaccine, there are consecutive notices from individual GPs who in several cases have to wait weeks to restock. It is also telling that when Matt Hancock, director of the British Association of General Practitioners (RCGP), was asked in parliament if there would be enough flu vaccination this year, he replied: “There will be enough vaccines for the population over 65, children and people at risk. for those who suffer from a disease ”. And that means some healthy middle-aged Britons will not get vaccinated this year, even if they want to.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country has ordered another six million vaccines, bringing the supply to 26 million this year in a country of eighty million people, so he says there will be no permanent shortage of the vaccine. However, a temporary shortage of stocks can occur, which is bad news because in the country, 5 to 20 percent of the country’s population generally contract the flu in a year.

You need an order of priority

The shortage has already been answered by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is urging health authorities to prioritize who will get vaccinated first. At the top of the list are citizens over 65, followed by healthcare workers, who, based on experience, are also more affected by the flu and coronavirus epidemic than the average citizen.

The priority vaccines are for pregnant women, children and people with various long-term diseases: diabetes, cardiovascular diseases. The WHO has also stressed that a similar order will need to be established early next year, when the first shipments of coronavirus vaccines are expected to arrive to curb the Covid-19 epidemic.

No epidemic

While there is a vaccine shortage in Europe, and in several Asian countries, such as China, where there are long lines for vaccines, there is promising news from the southern hemisphere, where summer is now beginning, and countries have recovered from their own pandemics of flu. But there was little to recover from, with data from Australia, South Africa and South America showing that the local epidemic was milder than ever this year, with countries where the epidemic was virtually nonexistent.

In the case of influenza, protective measures – use of masks, disinfection of hands and physical restraint – that do not appear to be sufficient to contain the coronavirus pandemic have worked much better.

There is a big difference between influenza and coronavirus disease: influenza infects when symptoms have appeared, while those infected with Covid-19 can transmit the disease even if they do not have the characteristic symptoms.