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The European Commission considers that the vaccination process and the respective delays in Portugal are of “national competence”, and argues that, although the European bloc faces a shortage of vaccines, Member States have been alerted in a timely manner on how to handle these difficulties .
During the instructions, an official of the European Commission recognizes that the community executive “is aware that deliveries are important factors in the vaccination process” and that the lack of vaccines may influence the objective of vaccinating 70% of the adult population in summer .
However, it maintains that rules have been developed so that Member States can better manage the lack of vaccines. In Portugal, 503 thousand vaccines have already been received, 43 thousand of which went to Madeira and the Azores and 460 thousand remained on the continent.
“As we were aware of these difficulties, in October we drew up rules for member states to prepare for this vaccination process,” the official explained, “that is, regarding priority groups.”
“Given that we do not have all vaccines available, it is important that priority groups get vaccinated first,” he said.
Without vaccines, priorities do not change, says Gouveia de Melo
The statement comes at a time when the new coordinator of the workgroup ensures that the priority groups foreseen in the vaccination plan against Covid-19 will not be modified, although there is a lack of vaccines.
“It would not make sense to change priorities because there are no vaccines,” said Henrique Gouveia e Melo, in an interview with “TVI”, recalling that the way in which people were prioritized to be vaccinated “has a lot to do with risks and pathologies “. “The Admiral, was unfavorable to age stratification, alleging studies that defend that” attacking comorbidities saves more people than attacking by decreasing age groups. “
The priority groups originally included health professionals, professionals and users of nursing homes, professionals and users of institutions for the dependent and professionals of the Armed Forces. However, the priority was extended in February to more than 80 years and people between 50 and 79 years with pathologies identified as priority. To date, 415 thousand vaccines have been administered, with 60 thousand in reserve.
Brussels argues delays in vaccine approvals are “justified”
The European Commission dismisses the narrative that the vaccination process could be in a more accelerated phase if it had chosen to approve the production and distribution of vaccines earlier, similarly to what happened in the United Kingdom, the United States and even Israel, justifying that the European bloc preferred to choose the path of safety and efficacy in the approval process of vaccines against Covid-19.
In response to Jornal Economico, during the instructions, this Wednesday, a community executive source considers that an accelerated and emergency approval would be “subject to health risks”, since it is a new vaccine against a virus that is still being intensively investigated.
“Mass vaccination in Israel is justified by the approval of emergency use, which was considered a risk, but had good results. The European Commission and the Member States were not prepared to take that risk. It is true that we arrived after Israel in the authorization of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, but in our opinion it was justified ”, he reinforced.
In addition, the EC official recalls that this emergency approval would not be compatible with the data protection laws of the European bloc, since, in exchange for the timely and massive supply of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines, the authorities of the health facilities and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agreed to cede the age, sex and medical history of those vaccinated.
“In addition to the security issue, the Israeli government has chosen to provide data on vaccinated users in ways that are not compatible with the data protection laws of the European Union. Data protection is very important to us ”, he emphasized.
The official added that the European Commission is “happy to have started the process early and that the results of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine turned out to be a great choice, but knowing the state we were in when we decided to approve the vaccine, we think it has been justified following the path we have traveled so far ”.
This path, which takes into account the safety, efficacy, price and production capacity of these drugs, was the same one adopted in all the negotiations with pharmaceutical companies approved so far. Since the beginning of negotiations last year, the European Commission has contacted more than 160 pharmaceutical companies, but for now, only Pfizer / BionTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca / Oxford have authorization from the European Medicines Agency (EMA ) for distribution among the 27 members. state. Contracts were also signed with Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson and CureVac allowing the purchase of a vaccine as soon as it is proven safe and effective and negotiations are still ongoing with Novavax and Valneva.
“The three pharmaceutical companies already approved represent 1,200 million doses, more than enough to guarantee the vaccination of all European citizens. More than double, ”he said, adding that in the first semester the EU expects to receive 100 million doses, 300 million in the second and 600 in the third.
“We have come up with a different and varied portfolio to ensure safe and effective vaccines,” he said.
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