So far, only two types of vaccines have been approved in Europe, Pfizer and Moderna. These companies recently reported that they were forced to reduce the supply of vaccines due to the shortage, after which vaccination, ie the distribution of the first dose, was suspended in many European countries.
Besides slowing down the production of the two approved vaccines, and AstraZeneca, which was expected to be approved later this month, it was said that there would be fewer shipments than it was initially expected. They explained that “reduced production at locations belonging to the European supply chain” was the main reason.
It will be a real challenge for companies to reach the agreed and planned amount, especially if consider the fact that the current dynamics is half as slow as expected and that at any moment a lot can go wrong.
Such events in the world and Europe raise the question of what will happen to BiH, which has already been proven not to be on any list of priorities, as well as the fact that the authorities have not needed to fight for their population for a long time.
For a long time, we have only relied on COVAX and EU mechanisms, which failed. The first one due to the capitalism and the adjustment of companies to countries that have money, and the second one because of the fact that countries of the European Union (EU) are a priority.
If we continued to be passive in the procurement of vaccines, it is unlikely that the vaccines would be delivered, and therefore process of immunization would not begin before April, and even if we manage to get them earlier, the question is how many doses we would get, especially if we take into account that COVAX managed to provide only 40 million doses for 190 countries.
After the recent meeting of the entity representatives with Zoran Tegeltija and Ankica Gudeljevic, we had the possibility of getting at least Chinese and Russian vaccines.
The problem with these two vaccines, as it has been proven, is not in their effectiveness or risk, given that people around the world are successfully vaccinated with them, but in the legislation regulations and the determination of the EU not to allow Russians and Chinese to provide help.
Many countries, mostly outside the EU, have decided to trust to the Russians and Chinese, especially when they have seen that they are also vaccinating their populations and have been successfully implementing this process for a while. However, the EU remains persistent and does not approve Sputnik and Chinese vaccines.
If they keep such an attitude, it could lead to another problem, and that is that the EU, in terms of restrictions, will not recognize that we are vaccinated unless if it is one of the approved vaccines, which ultimately means a ban on travel to countries of EU.
The downside of the current situation is the monopolistic behavior of Western countries, but the good thing is that three more vaccines could soon receive EU approval. Johnson & Johnson is expected to announce its results soon, as well as AstraZeneca and Novavax. Their quantities would greatly relieve the current demand, Klix.ba writes.
