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BERLIN – Earlier this year, many Germans complained about a shortage of coronavirus vaccines that could free them from costly lockdowns and limited social life. Weeks later, many are now upset that they did not receive the desired vaccine.
As people around the world clamor for vaccines and many countries have experienced severe shortages, a preference for a vaccine developed by German company BioNTech with Pfizer is causing a stack in Germany of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca, an Anglo-British company. Swedish, according to public health officials.
Many people – including health workers – skip appointments or refuse to sign up for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which they say is less effective than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, officials say. As a result, two weeks after the first shipment of 1.45 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Germany, only 270,986 were administered, according to data collected by the public health authority, the Robert Koch Institute.
“The point is, we have a product made in Germany which is the market leader, but we are not able to get it,” said Michael Breiden, 53, a night nurse at a mental hospital in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west of the country. . He said he would prefer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but would take AstraZeneca’s if that meant getting vaccinated faster.
The rejection of the AstraZeneca vaccine was fueled by weeks of negative coverage about it in German media, which described it as “second class,” citing its lower efficacy rate than Pfizer-BioNTech and reporting stories of people with problems reactions.
Clinical trials suggest that Pfizer’s efficacy, at 95%, is greater than that of AstraZeneca, which is between 60 and 90% depending on factors such as dose spacing. Still, it’s difficult to directly compare shots unless they’re tested head-to-head in the same trial. And many healthcare professionals suggest getting the first vaccine available, as Covid poses such health risks.
All major vaccines offer strong protection against serious illness and death, but as the overall efficacy rates show, some seem better than others at protecting against any form of illness. Even mild or moderate Covid cases can lead to long struggles with symptoms.
Widespread vaccine skepticism in Germany has exacerbated people’s reluctance to take the AstraZeneca vaccine. Medical staff and other frontline workers have also expressed resentment at receiving unused AstraZeneca injections, instead of Pfizer-BioNTech, saying it shows disrespect after their efforts to help the patient. countries to fight the pandemic over the past year.
The rejection of the AstraZeneca vaccine resulted in delays in a mass vaccination campaign that was already facing bureaucratic and logistical hurdles. This has raised concerns that, with the increase in new cases of coronavirus infection, even though Germany remains largely locked up, failure to vaccinate enough people fast enough could hamper efforts to bring the country back to a normal life.
“Vaccinating quickly is the order of the day,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Bavarian citizens in a video conference on Thursday, stressing that the three vaccines used in Germany had been approved by the European Agency for drugs and were trustworthy.
“Personally, I have little sympathy for the reluctance to use one vaccine or another,” he said. “This is a major problem, certainly for those who are still waiting for their first vaccination and even more so for people living in countries who may not even have the prospect of receiving a first vaccination this year.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who previously dismissed the AstraZeneca vaccine as being of questionable effectiveness for older age groups, told reporters on Thursday he would take it himself, responding to reports of the coup fiery confronted with skepticism in several regions of Europe.
The problem goes deeper than just AstraZeneca. According to a survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a third of Germans say they would not get vaccinated, no matter who gave the vaccine. In addition to AstraZeneca, Germany is also administering the vaccine made by Moderna, an American company, without problems or resistance. The vaccine has an overall efficacy of 94.5 percent.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been making negative headlines in Germany since January, when the company announced it would significantly reduce planned deliveries to the European Union. A few days before the administration of the first doses, the German Vaccine Commission recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine be given only to adults up to age 65, citing a lack of sufficient data on its effectiveness in the elderly, a advice followed by the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Then, several hospitals were forced to temporarily stop the administration of AstraZeneca injections after a number of people were summoned ill the day after their inoculation after suffering reactions considered normal to the vaccine. Although hospitals have since resumed vaccinations at a slower pace, the headlines have created additional uncertainty.
The World Health Organization has recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine for countries where variants are circulating, and leading German virologists, the Minister of Health and Ms Merkel, have all championed it as safe. Recent data from the use of the vaccine in Scotland showed that even after one dose, the AstraZeneca vaccine could reduce the risk of hospitalization by around 94%.
But the numbers that have stuck in the minds of many people are those from previous trials showing AstraZeneca offers 70% efficacy in protecting against Covid-19 and the one developed by BioNTech and Pfizer has shown higher efficacy. .
Dr. Lisa Koch, a dentist from Berlin, said she was surprised at the number of young workers in her office who said they would not get vaccinated, even though their job involved spending several hours a day with unmasked patients. Only the three dentists and one other staff member agreed to be vaccinated, she said.
“They think the vaccine is not safe, that it will not work, or may even harm them,” she said, adding that most of those who rejected the injections were in their 20s or 30s. . “They’re all a bit younger, maybe they don’t feel like they need it.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who is also a doctor, said that several months ago, before the vaccines underwent their final clinical tests, the hope was that they could reach at less 50 to 70% efficiency. .
“I would not hesitate to get vaccinated with AstraZeneca nor with other vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer or Moderna,” Ms. von der Leyen told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
German medical associations have issued an appeal urging all medical staff to take the opportunity to be vaccinated, stressing that all vaccines approved by authorities are safe and offer more protection than not getting the vaccine at all.
A study of the British Mass Inoculation Program, published this week, highlighted the vaccine’s effectiveness, even in the elderly. The study also showed that from 28 to 34 days after the first vaccine, when it appeared to be at or near peak effectiveness, the AstraZeneca vaccine reduced the risk of Covid-19 hospital admissions by approximately 94 %.
But all this did not convince many Germany.
Police officers in Berlin have unsuccessfully asked state health authorities to provide them with vaccines, said Benjamin Jendro, spokesperson for the police union in Berlin.
But this week, with thousands of unused doses of AstraZeneca available, the union learned that 24,000 are said to be for force. “Now all of a sudden, because nobody else wants the AstraZeneca, they say we can have it,” he said. “This is all still very new, but when others reject something and it is offered to the police, it is understandable that many colleagues feel burnt out. And they’re worried, there are so many conflicting reports.
“Some colleagues say they will take it immediately, others are more uncertain,” he said.
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