Filenews 12 April 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
In the vice the vaccination program, which still faces the reluctance of citizens to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccines. Some even go so far as to change their personal doctor in order to secure the vaccine of their desire, so that personal doctors, in turn, complain about the unbearable pressures they are under, and ask for a change in the procedure carried out through the Vaccination Portal.
From the scientists' point of view, the intention to study all the data and make suggestions is clear. The members of the Scientific Advisory Committee ( despite the fact that the Medicines Council and the National Vaccination Authority have the final say), are oriented towards a detailed analysis of the matter at their well-established teleconference tonight, while yesterday, as reported by information provided by the 'F', they exchanged e-mail expressing their personal views, which will probably be put up for discussion tonight.
In a statement, the member of the EES, Professor Petros Karagiannis, went on to stress that "the right information, transparency, is needed to help people make the right decision. Tomorrow night there will be a teleconference of the epidemiological team and I hope that the issue will be discussed to help the situation," he said.
The Ministry of Innovation, however, makes it clear that the problems presented at the Vaccination Portal "are not entirely technical, since they are mainly due to unexpected and unpredictable situations", while the Ministry of Health remains firm in its position that the Republic of Cyprus faithfully follows the recommendations of the European Medicines Agency and therefore, for the time being, there is no question of changes to the vaccination programme. However, it does not exclude the promotion of certain actions aimed at changing citizens' attitudes towards available vaccines.
The vaccination programme itself continues but at a turtle pace, while yesterday, according to information from "F", a reduced demand for all available vaccines was recorded for the first time and not only for the AstraZeneca vaccine, since even a small number of Pfizer vaccines were left unclaimed.
In particular, while the Vaccination Portal had opened yesterday with the right to arrange appointments for 7,500 citizens belonging to vulnerable groups, by the afternoon only 1,497 appointments had been scheduled, of which 1,462 were for Pfizer's vaccines, out of a total of about 1,600 available doses, and 35 for AstraZeneca out of a total of about 6,000 doses.
The disruption between citizens is fully reflected in the statements of the president of the scientific society of family doctors, Andreas Polyneikis.
"Too many citizens are putting unbearable pressure on us personal doctors to get them a vaccine other than that of AstraZeneca, which puts us in a difficult position every day," he said, adding, "to tell you only one case in which I received ten calls from the same person to arrange an appointment with another vaccine and because in the end I was unable to do so. , the family proceeded to delete from my list. They went to other doctors to get them a vaccine. We have reached these low points now."
As a personal physician, Mr. Polyneikis continued, "I ask, can't anything change? When the Gate opens at 8 a.m. and 8:01 a.m. there's not even a sample vaccine other than AstraZeneca, what can we do? And we're seeing another phenomenon. Several citizens put another three or four people known to them, trying at the same time to secure an available appointment and at the same time asking us to do the same process."
In "unexpected and unpredictable situations", Deputy Minister of Innovation Kyriakos Kokkinos attributed the problems presented at the Vaccination Portal, stressing that the problem will not be solved "as long as the availability of vaccines remains at current levels".
The electronic system, he said, "behaves as designed. It is not so technical the problem, but it is an overload due to unexpected and unpredictable situations." A system, "designed to book up to 100,000 appointments a day, behaves in the way it is designed. But when for some reason everyone tries to enter the Gate the same second and from a second or even a third computer, you realize that the system will behave in the same unpredictable way." Right now, he said, "we will try to remove the right to enter for the same person from two or even three computers" and at the same time, "we have improved the system, it can close up to 25,000 - 30,000 appointments at the same time but still, if people continue to behave in the same way, there will be a problem and there is a risk of a technical problem".
Continuing, Mr. Kokkinos stressed the need for vaccination, making a strange statistical calculation. "Citizens who now turn around and don't make appointments need to understand that if they wait for their turn to come back and that happens in three months then they will be most at risk. Mathematics is simple. Within these three months we will have 50,000 additional cases, of which 500 people will die. We could be one of 50,000. If I get the vaccine now, I have a one in a million chance of having serious complications." Of course, in the 13 months of the pandemic in Cyprus, the cases are 52,033 and the deaths 273.
Today for ages 55-56
According to an announcement by the Ministry of Health, the vaccination programme continues in the coming days as follows:
Age group 55-56: From today, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow. There will be 20,000 appointments.
Age Group 53-54: From Friday, 8 a.m. to Saturday at 8 p.m. There will be an announcement on the number of appointments to be made available.
In addition, due to the technical issue that arose at the Vaccination Portal on the days when people aged 61 and over were given priority, people aged 61-63 will again be given the opportunity to plan their vaccination. The Vaccination Portal will only be available for people aged 61-63 on Thursday, April 15, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
