Filenews 5 February 2021
Europe must accelerate its vaccination campaign against the new crown, with the support of all pharmaceutical companies, the head of the World Health Organisation for Europe, Hans Kluge, stressed today in an interview with AFP, while admitting that he is "concerned" about the impact of variant strains on the effectiveness of vaccines.
"We need to join forces to speed up vaccination," stressed Mr Kluge, as the EU vaccination campaign has been in trouble since its insinuation due to the lack of vaccines and tensions between Brussels and some pharmaceutical companies. "Usually competing pharmaceutical companies will have to join forces to drastically increase their production potential, that's what we need," Hans Kluge stressed.
In the EU, the proportion of the population receiving the first dose of the vaccine is only 2.5%. However, the announcements by several companies that they will increase vaccine deliveries raise hopes of accelerating vaccinations. As for the effectiveness of these vaccines vis-à-vis the variant strains of the new coronavirus: "that is the big question. I'm worried," Mr. Kluge admitted.
According to him, "we must prepare for the appearance of other variant strains, mainly by enhancing the sequencing of the coronavirus genome". "This is a stark reminder that the virus still has the upper hand over humans, but it's not a new virus, it's an evolution of the virus that is trying to adapt to the host humans," he recalled.
"The tunnel is a little bigger"
Of the 53 countries belonging to the periphery of Europe as defined by WHO (some of which are located in Central Asia), 37 have recorded cases linked to the variant strain of the new coronavirus originally identified in Britain and 17 of the variant strain originally identified in South Africa, according to the most recent data.
Although the situation now seems more difficult than when the first vaccines began to be distributed, the WHO official called on citizens to remain optimistic. "I will be honest: I think the tunnel will be a little longer than we thought in December, but this will be a year more easily manageable than the previous one," he stressed. ''The' solution, or 'the' strategy do not exist. We need to be better at what we do and we are in the process of improving," he said.
Hans Kluge reiterated his call for solidarity with countries that cannot obtain vaccines, suggesting that rich countries speed up the allocation of doses to poor countries after achieving a specific target for vaccination against Covid-19. "Maybe if EU countries get to vaccinate 20% of their population - 20% means the elderly, health staff, people with co-morbidities - then maybe it's time to share the vaccines," he suggested.
The limit of 100 million doses of covid-19 vaccines worldwide was exceeded on Tuesday, with 65% of these doses being administered to the highest-income countries, according to World Bank criteria. "We know that in the EU, Canada, Britain, the US orders exceeded the necessary instalments by four to nine times. So there is no need for 70% (p.s. vaccinated among the total population) to share (vaccines) with the Balkans, Central Asia or Africa."
While the WHO is positive about the creation of vaccination certificates to monitor the progress of campaigns, Kluge criticised the prospect of creating a vaccination passport that would be a prerequisite for one to travel. "It's clearly something we don't subscribe to because it will increase inequality and raise a lot of questions," he said.
Source: RES-BE
