Pfizer Covid Vaccine: Ok before Christmas. But Italy remains an enigma – Chronicle

The first Europeans will be vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of the year, maybe even before Christmas. But none of them could be Italian. While in England the vaccination campaign and the Germany – country with fewer deaths thanItaly but that from today it will enter a emergency shutdown hard – is pushing to start injecting before December 25 the first EMA approved vaccine, that PfizerBioNTechItaly runs the risk of being late. Especially after the acceleration of Ema, the European Medicines Agency, in the green light for Pfizer vaccine. Today the emergency commissioner Domenico Arcuri will meet with the ministers Roberto Speranza me Francesco Boccia and the head of Civil Protection Angelo borrelli for the “final meeting” in the Primula project.

In short, the goal is to close the vaccine plan. Meanwhile, the prediction of the vaccination campaign, raised by the government for the end of January, has become, when everyone hurries, extremely far off. Especially since in the EU the indication is that of a common start of vaccination in the Member States. Europe itself runs the risk of being among the last in a world, where the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Jordan already vaccinate hundreds of people a day. Yesterday the European situation changed and the times became even tighter. According to German newspaper BildIn fact, the EMA will authorize the Pfizer vaccine on December 23, before the date set for 29. Everything indicates that the green light may arrive before Christmas because the same agency has announced that it will convene a meeting to examine the data about this vaccine already on December 21. It seems that Germany wants to start distribution immediately, there is talk of December 26 or even 24.

Europe is moving forward. Is it Italy? The lives of thousands of people are certainly at stake and, as the majority themselves whisper to the government, “there is not a minute to lose”, because “if the EMA accelerates, why shouldn’t the Italian government?” .

According to a study byUniversity of Rome Tor Vergata vaccinating 80% of people over 60 years of age against Covid and anticipating the start of vaccinations on January 15 could prevent 17,000 deaths in 9 months and reduce the number of places occupied in intensive care units and wards by half. hospitals. Starting a month before, the beneficial effects would be even more powerful. But it is necessary to streamline the organization of the points for the administration of the vaccine and clarify when, exactly, the 28 million doses of the vaccine planned for the first quarter of 2021 will arrive and if something can arrive before the end of the year.

In the first phase, then, there will only be 300 sites for administration of the Pfizer vaccine, mostly hospitals due to the preservation characteristics of the vaccine product. Are the hospitals ready? It is known that unlike the influenza vaccine, the purchase of doses is centralized and the regions will not have to purchase them. But also in reality, like the Tuscany and theEmilia romagnaWhere there are no structural health deficits, the times do not seem short. Health workers and RSAs will be vaccinated first, but if the reservation needs to be made within the next two or three days, we are still talking January for the administration.