The director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) called on Friday for
"the whole world" to
have access to anti-Covid vaccines, while a promise from the great powers of the G7 is expected to provide a billion doses to more destitute.
Read also: Vaccination: is the increase in vacant slots a "little alert" for the rest of the campaign?
Emer Cooke also assured in an interview with AFP that the European regulator remains confident about the effectiveness of anti-Covid vaccines in the face of variants in circulation, while noting that the situation could
"evolve rapidly".
The leaders of the G7 should formalize at their summit in Carbis Bay, England, a promise to provide a billion doses to the most deprived, a gesture considered encouraging but insufficient for several NGOs on Friday.
“This is outside the purview of the EMA, so I can only speak from a personal point of view, and I really think we need to ensure availability and access [of vaccines] worldwide, and not just in countries that can afford to pay them, ”
said Emer Cooke. After a difficult start, the vaccination campaign finally took off in the EU, among other things thanks to the authorization since December by the vaccine regulator Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
“I thought we would be much further than where we are today. The fact that we have four vaccines when the pandemic was declared 15 months ago is exceptional ”
, welcomed the Irishwoman, who arrived at the head of the EMA in November 2020, when the EU was in the process. awaiting authorization of vaccines. The emergence of variants is now the cause of many concerns, particularly with regard to the Delta variant, first identified in India.
“So far, we are convinced that vaccines remain effective against circulating variants, but the situation can change very quickly,”
noted Emer Cooke. She assured that the EMA was working with vaccine manufacturers toensure that the sera remain effective against variants.