Turkey: Trouble about Corona Vaccine Turkovac - "A liquid that is issued as a vaccine"

Created: 01/10/2022, 8:27 PM

By: Tim Vincent Dicke

The Turkovac corona vaccine, which was developed entirely in Turkey, has come under fire.

Experts are storming against the information policy of the Erdogan government.

Ankara - Turkey * is in an exclusive group of states that have developed their own vaccine against the coronavirus *.

The vaccine with the name Turkovac is proudly marketed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan * as a highly effective agent.

But there is criticism from specialist circles.

In Turkey, the corona numbers are rising rapidly, according to official information, the daily new infections are approaching the 70,000 mark - the values ​​are higher than ever in the pandemic.

As in other countries, the highly contagious Omikron variant * is apparently becoming more and more dominant.

Turkey relies on its own corona vaccine Turkovac

According to the Turkish Ministry of Health, the vaccination rate among adults is more than 80 percent.

In addition to the vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer * and Sinovac from China, Turkey also uses the vaccine Turkovac developed in-house.

The vaccine received emergency approval at the end of December 2021 and has been vaccinated since the beginning of the new year.

The Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca was one of the first to be vaccinated against Corona with Turkovac.

According to his information, the third and final clinical study with 40,800 subjects began in June, and the application for emergency approval to the drug authority TITCK, which is subordinate to his ministry, was submitted in November.

People are waiting for a corona vaccination in Turkey.

© Adem Altan / AFP

Ates Kara, an advisor to the Minister of Health, described the vaccine as "very successful".

"So far, none of those vaccinated with Turkovac has developed a severe form of Covid-19 that would have required hospitalization or intensive care," he said.

Turkey: Erdogan speaks of the Turkovac corona vaccine in the highest tones

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also already given Turkovac his blessing.

In a video link he called on all previously unvaccinated people in Turkey to be vaccinated against corona with the vaccine.

After all, it also has a significant advantage over the previously approved vaccines: the complete development in Turkey.

Furthermore, Turkey plans to donate 15 million Turkovac cans to the African countries.

It is a "shame for humanity that only six percent of the African population are vaccinated," said Erdogan at a Turkey-Africa summit in Istanbul at the end of 2021.

Despite the persuasion that Erdogan and the Turkish government are doing, there has been considerable criticism of Turkovac, which, like Sinovac, is a traditional dead vaccine.

The reason: To date, there are no official data on effectiveness.

The General Secretary of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), Vedat Bulut, told the news platform Diken: "We are not very concerned about the side effects, but we have no data on the protective effect".

Bulut added, "This is not a vaccine, this is a liquid that is given out as a vaccine."

A dose of the Turkovac corona vaccine.

© Adem Altan / AFP

Corona vaccine from Turkey: criticism of Erdogan's government because of Turkovac

Bulut is extremely suspicious of the Turkish government. He told Anka News Agency: “In the West, emergency approvals are granted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through independent scientific committees. In Turkey, however, the production and procurement of vaccines is enforced by the government by force. "

Sebnem Korur Fincanci, the president of the Turkish Medical Association, also criticized the government's handling of Turkovac.

“As a medical association, we would like to see the scientific studies on this topic so that we can discuss it.

Together we want to evaluate how objective and scientifically valuable this data is.

Unfortunately, that's not possible, ”said Fincanci in an interview with the Istanbul daily Sözcü.

In the course of the pandemic, Erdogan's government also made contradicting statements about corona vaccines, criticized Fincanci.

(tvd / AFP)