Filenews 8 August 2021 - by Androulla Tarameda
The goal of full vaccination in 70% of the European population by the end of the summer is achievable, says Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou, underlining the European Commission's determination to halt efforts by those attempting to exploit the COVID-19 health crisis and endanger lives or cultivate hate speech.
It recognises that it takes time and a great deal of effort to return to a new normality and states in every direction that the Member States and all of us, together with EU support, should step up the effort to vaccinate and thus shield more citizens. In her interview with "F", the Cypriot Commissioner also notes the Commission's commitment that at least three new therapeutic instruments are available by October. "Together with vaccines, safe and effective therapeutic means will contribute to Europe's return to a new normality," she says, and firmly insists that collectively we will succeed.
We took the opportunity for this conversation to ask Mrs Kyriakidou about the political issues concerning the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish challenges and Varosia. Citing European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and High Representative Jose Borrell, he stressed that the EU clearly says no to a two-state solution and calls for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish actions and the lifting of all measures taken with regard to Varosia.
- We are in the second year with the pandemic continuing to show its teeth both health and economically. How do you assess the whole situation?
-There is light on the horizon if we continue intensive vaccinations, but also compliance with health measures. Magic solutions don't exist. It's important to close any gap in the mutations with vaccinations. We are not where we were at the beginning of the pandemic, when everything was unknown, when we had to walk in uncharted waters. There were no vaccines or treatments to stop the virus. But it takes time and a lot of effort to get back to a new normality.
With the European Vaccine Strategy at the moment we have achieved a full vaccination of European citizens at a rate of more than 60%. The Member States and all of us, together with the support of the EU, should intensify the effort to vaccinate and thus shield more citizens. I have made and will continue to make visits across the EU as part of the Commission's ongoing efforts and my commitment to support the development of Member States' national vaccination campaigns. The target we have set for full vaccination at 70% by the end of the summer is achievable.
-Around the world, and not just Europe, everyone is bearing the brunt of tackling new virus mutations in vaccinations, but facing a wave of anti-vaccinations, uneven but very powerful. Obviously the split in vaccinated and anti-vaccinated people doesn't help the whole effort.
- I have never been a fan of intense controversy, and that is what I continue to support now. Every man has the right to free thought. But the scientific evidence speaks for itself. Each of us must weigh the data taking into account the personal and social costs of our individual decisions. With the debate, with the right information and not with misinformation, with scientific knowledge, we can convince those who still have hesitations about what good we now have at our disposal and called the vaccine.
Quite a few people are not anti-vaccinators by conviction, they are, I would say, a minority in the majority of European countries. There are people who for their own reasons have concerns or even phobias. These citizens must be approached both with evidence and through scientific data to explain to them how things really are, in order to eliminate the fears they feel. Never before has there been such mass vaccination on a global level. This titanic effort has never been a race, but a marathon.
-The coronavirus cultivated fear with misinformation, conspiracies to fuel people's concerns and concerns about vaccinations. In addition, there was the EU's inability for a common language, joint decisions in all member countries. How would you, as the head of this great effort, be buried in an unprecedented pandemic?
-The European Commission is proposing concrete actions for a stronger and more resilient EU, with very specific actions that we have launched for the first time the European Health Union and HERA – the European Health Crisis Prevention and Response Authority – which will address cross-border health crises in the future, in an immediate and strategic way. We see that for the first time the European Union is reacting so collectively, on issues which do not concern European competences, such as health. Plus, EU countries in all phases of the pandemic did not have the same epidemiological situation. We are going through a historic period for the future of the EU, where old standards are changing and evolving. The pandemic was accompanied by a huge wave of false and misleading information that found fertile ground in people's most basic concerns and in the rapidly changing news cycle.
Social media has taken a free step, and although of course we are strong advocates of free speech, we must at the same time not forget that misleading information about health care and dangerous "traps" with false claims of conspiracy theories endanger public health. The European Union and its Member States are determined to thwart the efforts of those who attempt to exploit the crisis and endanger the lives of citizens, or even promote hate speech.
