Coronavirus | The European Union launched the vaccination campaign with some leaders as an example: “There is nothing to fear”

Member countries of the European Union on Sunday launched a campaign to administer the coronavirus vaccine to some of the most vulnerable among its 450 million inhabitants, which represents a beacon of hope in the continent’s fight against the worst health crisis in a century.

On Sunday morning, the first doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech were administered to health workers, the elderly and high-ranking politicians, this is to reassure the public that the vaccine is safe.

In Prague, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis received the vaccine at dawn and said: “There is nothing to fear”. In Rome, five doctors and nurses dressed in white uniforms sat in a semicircle at the Spallanzani Infectious Disease Hospital to receive their doses. “Getting the vaccine is an act of love and responsibility towards the whole collective,” said Claudia Alivernini, a 29-year-old nurse, before becoming the first person to receive the vaccine in Italy, who recorded more than 71,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza told the hospital that the coordinated EU campaign was a sign of hope for the continent, but people should not let their guard down yet and continue caring on their own for several more months. “Complicated months aheadhe commented. “ It’s a wonderful day, but you still have to be careful. This vaccine is the real way to end this difficult season. ”

// Germany, Hungary and Slovakia started vaccination one day ahead of schedule

The vaccine began arriving in EU hospitals from a factory in Belgium on Friday. The block has been hit by some of the early epicenters of the virus, including Italy and Spain. Other member countries, like the Czech Republic, avoided the worst of the pandemic early on, but their health systems nearly collapsed in the fall.

In total, the EU has recorded at least 16 million cases of coronavirus and more than 336,000 deaths, a high number which experts say is lower than the actual number due to unreported infections and a limited number of tests.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday released a video celebrating the distribution of the vaccine, noting it was a “ moving moment of unity ”.

// They record the first case of allergic reaction to Moderna’s vaccine in the United States

The vaccination campaign is expected to ease tensions in some countries, especially Germany, after Britain and the United States launched vaccination programs with the same vaccine a few weeks ago. Each nation will decide who will receive the first vaccines. Spain, France and Germany, among others, have pledged to prioritize the elderly and residents of nursing homes.

The first vaccinated in Europe

The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Andrej Babis, became one of the first European leaders to receive the vaccine on Sunday, at the Central Military Hospital in Prague, and in front of television cameras. “I did not feel anything and I am perfectlyBabis later said, accompanied by WWII veteran Emilie Repikova, who “got a little itchy and that’s it. ”

Vaccinations have also started in Italy, where some 10,000 doses of the drug arrived during its first disembarkation, on a date “which will live with us forever,” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced on Twitter.

In Sweden, Gun-Britt Johnsson, 91, was the first Swedish resident to receive the injection in a center in the town of Mjolby, 230 kilometers from Stockholm. “It’s wonderful not to be sick,” she later said of a vaccine that the country’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven described as “light in the dark” and “a moment extraordinary for science and humanity “.

And in Spain, Araceli Rosario Hidalgo, an intern at the Los Olmos retirement home in Guadalajara since 2013 and born in 1924, was the first person to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at age 9. A few minutes later, she was administered the vaccine to Mónica Tapias, born in 1972, an auxiliary nursing technician (TCAE) who has worked at the center for ten years. Araceli has a daughter and a son, four grandchildren and a great-grandson and is from Guadix (Granada), but has been registered in Guadalajara for 25 years and Mónica is from Guadalajara.