The Greek authorities are guaranteeing a second dose to all people who received the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, according to government sources, following the EU’s decision not to renew the order for the company’s products.
According to the same sources, this only concerns the conflict between the leadership of the European Commission and the Company, not Greece and AstraZeneca.
Earlier, Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias stressed that the receipt of AstraZeneca vaccines for Greece is guaranteed. Reiterating that “the best vaccine is the fastest,” he stressed that its approval – like all other EU licensed vaccines – came after study and research. The fact that other countries also approved this vaccine urgently due to the pressure of the pandemic and began to refuse after the massive manifestation of side effects, the minister ignored.
Mr Kikilias recalled that about 55 million Europeans have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, while England has already emerged from the strong pressure caused by the coronavirus with this vaccine. Talking about possible side effects, he emphasized that they are infinitely small, citing as an example that a woman using contraception or a smoker can also get thrombosis. In fact, the minister, who himself received the vaccination from Pfizer, said that the risk was not so great that he would pay attention to it.
The Greek Ministry of Health does not publish the number of people who refused to vaccinate AstraZeneca, but according to unofficial data, their number is quite large. Earlier, the same department stated (against the background of massive refusals of this vaccine throughout Europe, the USA and Canada) that vaccinations of AstraZeneca drugs will be carried out no matter what.
It is worth noting that recently in Greece a law was passed, according to which persons who took part in vaccinations or processes related to the adoption of measures to counter the coronavirus are preventively considered innocent, thus, in fact, received an indulgence in relation to any accusations in this regard against them.
As previously reported, the European Commission has refused to renew the contract for the re-supply of the coronavirus vaccine company AstraZeneca. Writes about it Reuters with reference to the words of the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton.
European officials hold the company responsible for delaying vaccination campaigns in EU member states. Now Brussels is making a big bet on Pfizer-BioNTech. This week, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that a contract would soon be signed for the supply of almost 2 billion doses of this vaccine by the end of 2023.
In April, it became known that the European Commission was suing the vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca for disrupting the delivery schedule. It reported that the Anglo-Swedish company did not comply with some of the provisions of the bilateral agreement regarding the prompt delivery of a sufficient number of doses that were promised to European citizens. Also, regarding the company’s products, there were many complaints about side effects, mainly thrombosis, which led in February – April to massive refusal from products from many countries of the world.
The European Commission has pre-ordered 2.3 billion doses of vaccine from the Swedish-British company AstraZeneca in 2020, even before the completion of the development of the drugs.
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