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“On December 27, 28 and 29 vaccination will begin throughout the EU,” wrote the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Twitter.
She said wednesday that a coordinated start would show that the Union agrees to a fair distribution of doses.
France, Germany and Italy are some of the countries that intend to start at the same time on the 27th. The EEA country Norway is another. Sweden can start then too, maybe even on the second day, vaccine coordinator Richard Bergström tells Ekot on Swedish radio.
https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1339525459864936450?s=20
The paperwork has sped up. On Monday, the European Medicines Agency EMA will hold an extraordinary meeting at which American Pfizer’s vaccine variant and Germany’s Biontech can get the go-ahead. It can happen the day before the day of baptism. Then the EU countries and the Commission will give one last blessing after which deliveries can begin.
Then the authorities stand up on the starting grid to bring the vaccine to market at extreme speed, as Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas said on Wednesday.
“We can do it in two days,” he said.
– If approval comes as planned, we will start in Germany on December 27th. Other EU countries also want to be ready to start on December 27, says German Health Minister Jens Spahn ahead of a web meeting on Thursday between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of Biontech.
In most cases, it takes the EMA about seven months to evaluate a drug. If the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine receives approval from the agency on Monday, it will take place 20 days after the EMA received the test results. Approval is likely to be conditional and the vaccine is expected to be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
The EU has already ordered in November 200 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and Biontech. They are now replenishing themselves by exercising the option of an additional 100 million doses that were completed at the same time.
“We want to be sure to get more doses because there is a high demand,” a spokesman for the European Commission told Reuters.
At the same time, another new vaccine contract is being signed, the seventh in a row, with American Novavax. 100 million doses are bought, with another 100 million in reserve.
The EU has signed an agreement with seven different providers for a total of 1.4 billion doses, with an option for an additional 560 million.
However, currently, Pfizer / Biontech is the only one of the seven that is close to being approved. The vaccine doses to be delivered to European countries are manufactured at a Pfizer factory in Belgium, from where it is shipped on trucks and planes. A big challenge is that it should be stored at minus 70 degrees.
Britain, the United States and Canada have already begun vaccinating their populations. During the first week, more than 137,000 Britons received the syringe, according to the British government.
Number two in the EMA queue is American Moderna, which hopes to get the nod on January 12. For Johnson & Johnson and Astra Zeneca, applications to the EMA are expected to be delayed until March.
The vaccine is given in two installments, every few weeks.
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