On Monday, the drug regulator of the European Union approved the use of the first block coronavirus vaccine, allowing member countries to launch inoculations next week in an urgent but complicated battle to ease the pandemic.
The approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be a symbolic defining moment in a pandemic that is the cause for more than 300,000 Europeans, caused the worst depression since the establishment of the E.U., and returned many nations to holiday lockdown.
Distribution Of Vaccine:
The policymakers of E.U. have portrayed the vaccine rollout as a method to symbolize the bloc’s unity in front of the coronavirus threat. The vaccine will be given to all 27 E.U. nations according to the population, not income, and each nation will pay an equal amount. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also expressed his expectation that nations would start the process of vaccination in unison after Christmas.
Some nations have battled to have the ultra-cold freezers needed to store the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in safety. Others continue to tweak proposals on how they can determine who gets the first immunizations, normally front-line health personnel, as well as nursing home occupants and nurses, although each nation would have its own list. In the beginning, shipments could be modest: Media in Estonia stated last week that one company wanted to send 10,000 vaccine doses in the first wave, which was sufficient only for 5,000 people in the country with a 1.3 million population.
“We are not yet at a turning point,” Emer Cooke said. He is the executive director of the European Medicines Agency. This was during the announcement of the Pfizer-BioNTech authorization. “It will take time to roll out doses in sufficiently large numbers to enable all of our citizens to be protected.” The statement said.
Several health authorities are grumbling that Europe has already fallen behind, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being approved by the United States, Britain, and Canada earlier this month. The United States too has approved a vaccine produced by Moderna, which will be checked for authorization by the European regulator on January 6.
Compared to the United States, which approved the Pfizer-BioNTech dose on an emergency basis, the European Medicines Agency is using a more fleshed out procedure for vaccine approval. The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, would have to sign the agreement that von der Leyen said would come later on Monday.
“We’re going to act fast now,” she said on Twitter.
