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“If we get significant amounts of vaccines in the second quarter, we will definitely invite politicians, celebrities, leaders to vaccinate and lead by example. I will personally vaccinate AstraZeneca for Seimas members on March 16. Minister A.Dulkys stated .
However, on the evening of the same day, the Minister denied his own words: he suspended the use of AstraZeneca. We have to wait until March 18. a future decision of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on the reliability of this vaccine.
The EVA, as predicted by many scientists and physicians, has of course decided that AstraZeneca, which has so far vaccinated about 20 million people worldwide, people, and serious complications caused by only about forty, are at hand. except.
Just two days after the unexpected decision to stop using this vaccine in Lithuania, A. Dulkys stated that vaccination with AstraZeneca will be resumed. In addition, people will already be able to choose which vaccine from the existing vaccination centers they would like to vaccinate.
The minister did not wait for the second quarter and vaccine shipments to reach Lithuania at that time; He said he would sign an order for AstraZeneca to be vaccinated on Monday by President Gitanas Nausėda, Seimas President Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, Prime Minister Indrida. Šimonytė and himself.
However, what sparked the fury of such decisions by Minister A. Dulkis and who will take political responsibility for it? Finally, what to believe in ordinary mortals?
Should the Minister take responsibility?
“The responsibility should rest with the person who decides to stop using AstraZeneca (Minister – A. Dulkys, ed.). I find it very strange that the Minister made such a decision without consulting anyone. As I understood it, the Prime Minister didn’t know much. As chair of the committee, I was also able to get at least some brief information. Perhaps the experts should have been asked. The minister, not being a doctor, would say that he acted too boldly.
Especially since March 16. A meeting of the Council of the European Union was held in which the Deputy Minister of Health Živilė Simonaitytė declared that the use of AstraZeneca in Lithuania will not be suspended ”. lrytas.lt Antanas Matulas, the head of the Seimas Health Affairs Committee representing the ruling majority, spoke.
When asked if he would have any knowledge of what happened in Lithuania in a few hours, if the use of AstraZeneca had been stopped and if confidence in the entire vaccination process had been undermined, the head of the committee smiled: “It did not pass nothing. After all, ministers are not born in a matter of hours. Ministers mature with life, work, decisions, friendship, communication. Everything. “
Evaluating the decision of A. Dulkis to sign the order that as of March 22. A. Matulas recalled that he had spoken about it long before: not all fellow parliamentarians are capable of mastering the technique.
It is already a shame that laws are passed in this way. Now that Minister A.Dulkys has offered to vaccinate all Seimas members and the country’s leaders, of course, there are already attempts to rescue the current situation and rescue the AstraZeneca vaccine. The decision is late, but it is correct. “
Why did you unconditionally obey the IWT manager?
However, did Prime Minister I. Šimonytė know that on March 16? Will the use of AstraZeneca be discontinued in Lithuania?
“The Prime Minister was informed,” the portal said. lrytas.lt said government spokeswoman Rasa Jakilaitienė.
When asked to clarify whether I. Šimonytė supported Minister A. Dulkis’s decision to suspend AstraZeneca vaccination, the representative only repeated: “The Prime Minister was informed.”
Gytis Andrulionis, Head of the State Agency for Drug Control (VVKT), whose recommendations were heard by Minister A. Dulkys, after the EVA decision that AstraZeneca is a safe vaccine, to the portal lrytas.lt He explained that, two days before the news, the Minister had been advised to suspend the use of the vaccine, since 16 Member States of the European Union had previously suspended the use of some or all series of vaccines: “Some countries contributed your hypotheses and evaluations (Due to possible complications after taking AstraZeneca – ed.). EVA had received a lot of material. The vaccine evaluation lasted until March 18. and the same day the states provided information on serious cases. “
G. Anddrulionis had previously reported that he was also in Lithuania. (three cases – ed.), and in other EU countries, people are suspected of having a thromboembolism after being vaccinated with AstraZeneka. Many experienced Lithuanian doctors denied such suspicions and hypotheses, but the IWT director was not convinced.
Still, he claimed that it was necessary to stop the use of AstraZeneca, although for some reason Lithuania did not do so a few months ago, when other EU countries took similar actions. Asked about what Lithuania learned during those two days and what it contributed from the epidemiological point of view, the head of the service explained categorically: “When there were seventeen serious health complications in relatively young people, it was necessary to make mistakes.
After all, cerebrovascular thromboses often occurred. Isn’t that what our department responsible for the safety of medicines on the market had to do? “
In a two-day delay in vaccination, has AstraZeneca become so safe that even top officials will be vaccinated? G. Anddrulionis stated that there are no drugs without side effects: “All drugs are on the market as long as the risks do not outweigh the benefits.
Until March 18. neither we nor the VAS were aware of the incidence of thromboembolic events after taking AstraZeneca and the rare complications among vaccinated people. When all the data was put together, a few simple things came to light, the incidence of normal thromboembolism, even lower than expected. “
Responding to what changed during those two days and what Lithuania learned again, what it did not know before, G. Anddrulionis spoke fluently like a true bureaucrat 😕 The risks for AstraZeneca have already been identified and will need to be evaluated by physicians. That hasn’t happened before. “
“The Minister is not obliged to unconditionally obey the instructions of the IWT manager. Apparently Minister A. Dulkys was scared. Especially since he said that he had made the decision to stop using AstraZeneca only after hearing what G. Andrdrionis was talking about. I think the Minister was forced to immediately call a meeting with the experts, the chief epidemiologist, the ministry team and consult with everyone.
And then it was necessary to consult with the Prime Minister. To my understanding, no one was consulted. From the subsequent speeches and behavior of the Prime Minister, I understood that he was trying to rescue Minister A. Dulkis, ”commented A. Matulas, evaluating the two-day confusion over the use of AstraZeneca.
Does the minister need a formal “document”?
AstraZeneca would not have been registered in the EEA if it had not been secure. After all, clinical trials had been done before. The EEA Monitoring Committee monitors and evaluates the products once they have reached the market. What is happening in Lithuania at the moment is turning into a systemic misunderstanding.
Minister A. Dulkys is not a doctor. Also, you don’t seem to have people on your team who understand how to behave in the current situation or who don’t trust them. When a problem arises in connection with a pandemic, the minister takes a radically safe position, only setting foot on his.
After all, he did the same with the sixth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and stubbornly did not allow it to be used until someone wrote on paper that it could be used. And how many thousands of doses of that vaccine were spilled when there is such a shortage of vaccines in Lithuania ”? – portal lrytas.lt The former Minister of Health Aurelius Veryga spoke.
He was also amazed by the information on vaccines and public relations released by the Ministry of Health. According to the former minister, the ministry, after failing to consult with specialists and analyze all the information, had recently announced that it was not safe for AstraZeneca to vaccinate people over 65 years of age.
“It just came to our attention then. It wasn’t about safety at the time, it was about not collecting enough data, how effective is AstraZeneca in people over the age of sixty-five?
In other words, the manufacturer has not yet been able to answer exactly how effective it is for the elderly and not how safe it is. However, the ministry did not release the revised information in a timely manner. After all, lately people have been reading all about vaccines and there are those who are morbidly evaluating any suspicion that sows anxiety, “said A. Veryga.
Vytenis Andriukaitis, another former Health Minister and member of the European Commission currently working as an expert at the World Health Organization, shared similar thoughts: “.
On the other hand, the Lithuanian IWT belongs to the entire network of these EU councils. It is unclear whether you followed the decision of all services to stop using AstraZeneca or just on your own. Minister A. Dulkys had to find out.
If the decision to suspend the use of this vaccine in Lithuania for a time was made in the Cabinet of Ministers, it had to be signed by Prime Minister I. Šimonytė and A. Dulkys. If that was not the case, then it was signed by a minister, so he should now take responsibility. “
V. Andriukaitis, based on the available knowledge, concluded that the decisions to stop the use of AstraZeneca were made by the EU member states independently, without consulting each other: “After sixteen countries stopped using the vaccine, Belgium immediately requested the AstraZeneca to be returned.
And stopping the use of this vaccine in Lithuania was determined by nothing but cocoa, dancing with swords, fear and lack of competition. “
Aistė Šuksta, the representative of A. Dulkis, conveying the Minister’s opinion, stated that his political responsibility could not be discussed: “The use of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been suspended, taking into account the IWT recommendations. After all, this service is responsible for the quality of the drugs. It couldn’t have been otherwise. “
