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This is what we know about vaccination.
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Today the agreement was finalized with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and Richard Bergström, Swedish vaccine coordinator, will have a meeting with the government and experts in the coming days.
– If everything goes according to plan, we can start vaccinating against covid-19 already in January, he says.
When Aftonbladet contacts Sweden’s Vaccine Coordinator, Richard Bergström, he will simply hop on the plane to Sweden for an urgent meeting. The EU vaccine negotiations that were taking place in Switzerland had just been completed with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, by pure chance, on the same day that its promising results were published.
– In the coming days, I will meet with Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren and Development Aid Minister Peter Eriksson, various scientific experts and the Swedish Public Health Agency to discuss the next step, he says.
Based on early data, Pfizer’s vaccine has been shown to be more than 90 percent effective against covid-19. Evidence currently in the final phase, phase 3, shows that the vaccine could be as protective as the type of vaccine children receive against measles. But Richard Bergström doesn’t want to go that far, yet.
– It is too early to draw those conclusions, but the protective effects that we have seen now are very promising.
How close are we to a vaccine?
– If everything goes according to plan, we can start vaccinating in January. It will happen over and over again throughout the year. I dare say that I believe that all priorities have been vaccinated during the first half of 2021, if everything, as I said, goes according to plan.
Who will get vaccinated first?
– It is the Public Health Agency that decides. But what is proposed is that older people have the highest priority, including those who work in the care of the elderly and health personnel, as well as certain specific risk groups. In total, 2.6 million people are prioritized.
When can others get vaccinated?
– If all goes well, the masses can receive the vaccine during the second part of 2021.
Will children and pregnant women be vaccinated?
– The first studies do not apply to children and young people. Therefore, we do not have data on how they react to the vaccine. I consider it highly unlikely that they will be vaccinated at this stage. More data is needed first. The same goes for pregnant women.
Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / TT / TT NEWS AGENCY
Sweden’s Vaccine Coordinator Richard Bergström.
Is there a concern that people will not want to be vaccinated due to vaccine failure during swine flu and general skepticism of vaccines?
– In Sweden, in general, we are more willing to get vaccinated than in other countries. But I am very aware of the experience after the swine flu pandemic and I am incredibly humble about it. We must be very sensitive to what people think and report everything we know about the new vaccine.
Do I have to get vaccinated?
– Everyone must make their own decision. We cannot force people to get vaccinated. It will be voluntary and is an individual responsibility. If you are traveling, it may be a requirement in the future that you be vaccinated.
How many doses of the vaccine will be needed?
– It is different from one vaccine to another. The EU has agreements with several pharmaceutical companies. Pzifers will require two different doses, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine requires only one dose.
– Some vaccines may work better in the elderly and others in the young, so we protect ourselves by having agreements with various pharmaceutical companies.
Could it be that I get one vaccine and my mother gets another?
– Just like that. We will buy a range of vaccines from different manufacturers. It’s not yet clear who gets which, but it’s based on the study’s results.
How much protection time can we count?
– We will see over time how long the effect lasts. But the results are promising.
Richard Bergström just buckled up the plane when he says that he has been in the industry for a long time and has never seen before that we could produce a vaccine with such promising results in less than a year.
– Not the same as swine flu, answer quickly as you understood what the follow-up question would sound like.
– No, this is different, competitors have been helped, more and more studies have been carried out. 66,000 people have received the Pzifer vaccine and all are being closely monitored and will be followed over time. They are not released by chance but will be closely monitored, he says, noting that they now say “shipment completed” on the speakers.
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