Idafe Martin
03/16/2021 12:11
Clarín.com
World
Updated 03/16/2021 12:11 PM
The vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory
AstraZeneca
, developed by the University of Oxford, should be the one that made the difference in Europe.
Mass production was
expected
, it was one of the cheapest and it was easy to manage and maintain because it did not need, like Pfizer's, extreme cold of -70 degrees Celsius.
300 million doses would arrive from January to June.
None of this happened
and the "salvation" of Europe turned into chaos.
The problems began when the company announced that it was
unable
to fulfill the contract signed with the European Commission and deliver all the doses planned for the first six months of the year.
In fact, in several announcements it was reducing its production and delivery capacity until it did not reach
even a third
of what was expected.
From 300 million to about 90 million.
Now not even that is assured.
European governments sharpened their teeth and even sent inspectors to their plants.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, even threatened to intervene the company and take control of its plants.
An AstraZeneca vaccine pathway.
Photo: AP
Brussels pointed out that AstraZeneca had been using its European plants to produce the doses that were being applied in the UK.
The company alleged that the British Government had signed
its contract earlier
, which turned out to be false.
The row did not stop and then in some countries, with Austria in the lead, news of
several thromboses
in vaccinated people
jumped
.
The European Medicines Agency said
three times
, last week and this week, that the vaccine is safe, that it can continue to be administered and that cases of thrombosis among those vaccinated are not more common than among the general population.
It didn't matter
.
One after another, the European governments announced in recent days that they were ceasing, at least temporarily, to administer this vaccine.
In all of Western Europe, only Belgium continued to administer it this Tuesday.
What's behind?
Some British tabloid media suggest that Europeans are attempting
a fight with the United Kingdom out
of envy that supposedly they would be producing that the British were vaccinating faster.
The UK administers a single dose of vaccines that were intended for two doses.
The second dose
will come later
, but people vaccinated two months ago still do not have a date to receive the second dose.
Others believe that it is not a fight against the government of Boris Johnson but
an attack on the pharmaceutical company
, which they accuse of lying to the European Commission.
The European Medicines Agency said three times, last week and this week, that the vaccine is safe.
Photo: AP
The majority, on the other hand, and as corroborated by sources in the European Commission, estimate that what has occurred is
a cascade effect
, that no government wanted to continue using the vaccine if others began to say that it was not safe.
And that in addition the brake in the vaccination process can be replaced in days because
Pfizer will deliver more doses
than planned, about 10 million more as announced by Brussels this Monday.
EMA asks to be based on science
The director general of the European Medicines Agency answered dozens of questions on Wednesday.
Emer Cooke assured that they continue to evaluate the data they have received from the European ministries of health on the supposed thrombi caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.
There are
30 cases
of thrombosis among
5 million doses
of AstraZeneca administered until March 10.
No established causality.
Cooke, an expert focused more on science than on the political message, repeated several times that these incidents occurred in very few people, "no more than in the general population."
And he said that a committee of experts is studying whether they were caused by the vaccine.
Cooke announced that by Thursday there will be a statement that should serve as a guide to governments.
Although these, finally, will do as before and
will decide on their own.
While studying its effects, the European Medicines Agency considers that its benefits far outweigh its hypothetical risks.
Cooke said that “every day thousands of people die in the European Union.
We have authorized four vaccines and there are very few cases of thrombi ”.
It implied that
the priority should be to vaccinate
as quickly as possible as many people as possible because that will save tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands more deaths.
The director of the European Medicines Agency said she did not want to criticize governments that stopped using the vaccine, but her words came fierce criticism: “It is
their prerogative
.
Ours is to base ourselves on what science says ”.
Cooke said he was concerned that all this anger would end up causing citizens not to trust vaccines.
Brussels, special
ap
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The benefit of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweighs its risk, says the European Medicines Agency