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EUROPEAN UNION NATIONS have launched a coordinated effort to give Covid-19 vaccinations to adults among their 450 million citizens.
Shots were administered on Sunday morning to the most vulnerable people, healthcare workers who take care of them, and some politicians to reassure the public that the vaccinations are safe.
The vaccines, developed by Germany’s BioNTech and American drug maker Pfizer, started arriving in EU countries on Friday. The EU has seen some of the world’s earliest and hardest-hit virus hot spots, including Italy and Spain.
Others EU countries, like the Czech Republic, were spared the worst early on only to see their healthcare systems near collapse in the autumn.
Altogether, the EU’s 27 nations have recorded at least 16 million coronavirus cases and more than 336,000 deaths — huge numbers that experts still agree understate the true toll of the pandemic due to missed cases and limited testing.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen released a video celebrating the vaccine rollout, calling it “a touching moment of unity”.
Some EU immunisations began a day early in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. The operator of a German nursing home where dozens of people were vaccinated on Saturday, including a 101-year-old woman, said “every day that we wait is one day too many”.
The campaign should ease frustrations that were building up, especially in Germany, as the UK, Canada and the US kicked off their inoculation programmes with the same vaccine weeks earlier.
Each country is deciding on its own who will get the first shots. Spain, France and Germany, among others, are vowing to put the elderly and residents in nursing homes first.
In Italy, which has Europe’s worst virus toll at more than 71,000 dead, a nurse in Rome’s Spallanzani Hospital, the main infectious diseases facility in the capital, will be the first in the country to receive the vaccine, followed by other health personnel.
Poland is also prioritising doctors, nurses and others on the front lines of fighting the virus. The central European nation was largely spared the surge that badly hit Western Europe in the spring, but has been hit by high daily infections and deaths this autumn.
EU leaders are counting on the vaccine rollout to help the bloc project a sense of unity in a complex lifesaving mission after it faced a year of difficulties in negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal with Britain.
German health minister Jens Spahn said: “It’s here, the good news at Christmas. This vaccine is the decisive key to end this pandemic … it is the key to getting our lives back.”
Among politicians who plan to get virus shots on Sunday, as a way of promoting a wider acceptance of vaccinations, are Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova and Bulgarian health minister Kostadin Angelov.
Meanwhile, the first cases of a new virus variant that has been spreading rapidly around London and southern England have now been detected in France and Spain. The new variant, which UK authorities said is much more easily transmitted, has caused European countries, the United States and China to put new restrictions on travel for people from the UK.
The German pharmaceutical company BioNTech is confident that its coronavirus vaccine works against the new UK variant, but said further studies are needed to be completely certain.
The European Medicines Agency will be considering approving a second coronavirus vaccine on January 6, this one by Moderna, which has already been approved for use in the United States.
Meanwhile Ireland will wait 4 days to start.
@The Upside-down Triangle: Equivalent to 16 lives. Why delay? The vaccines have arrived and are ready for use!
@The Upside-down Triangle: not every country is starting at the same time.
@The Upside-down Triangle: Start as you mean to go on!
@The Upside-down Triangle: Sure you should know that that when Bank Holidays fall on Saturday or Sunday you add the days on for them….that’s your answer for 4 days
@Paul Furey: we were supposed to start at the same time as a symbol of unity according to the EU. It’s actually very poor by us that we’re not. Not exactly a great start.
@The Upside-down Triangle: one possibility, there is going to be a team of vaccinators going around various nursing homes interacting with very vulnerable people. Could the delay be to ensure these vaccinators have quarantined, or even gotten the vaccine and begun to develop immunity, so that covid isn’t inadvertently spread again within the nursing homes?
@D Mems: I’d put it more down to government inefficiency.
@brian reid: I think a pandemic is a little bit more important than letting people take their public holidays.
@Paul Furey: You’re right, some started yesterday, the rest today and Ireland another 3 days later on 30th.
@The Upside-down Triangle: so what is your answer for the comment you stated with…Ireland will have to wait 4 says
@brian reid: it wasn’t a question. It’s doesn’t warrant an answer.
@The Upside-down Triangle: go away you dip stick
@brian reid: no I won’t. Get off my journal.ie thread
@Paul Furey: Genuine question why not ?
@The Upside-down Triangle: why don’t you admit that the Government have F… up
@brian reid: what do you think the whole point of my original comment was? You’re really are not the sharpest tool in the box.
@The Upside-down Triangle: When Ireland joins the EEC we will be an equal part of Europe, or so I remember the politicians saying back in the day.
@The Upside-down Triangle: when they were giving out brains ….you must have been last on the list
@The Upside-down Triangle: Is it possible that the other countries started earlier because they got their first deliveries earlier? After all we are out at the far end of the EU, by the time the truck arrived in Ireland on the ferry or via the uk the rest of the continent would have had their’s deliveries and distributed them around their own nations, assuming they all left the same time
@brian reid: at least I have a brain unlike you!!
Ireland need 4 days to start vaccinations while other EU countries have hit the ground running. We have circa 600k people over 65 years of age let’s get this done and get back to normal… the lockdown lovers won’t like to hear this but there will most definitely 3 vaccines approved before the middle of January and it would be a failure not to have most of the vulnerable covered off by mid march
@Charlie Murphy: Ha. Lockdown lovers. Your right though, some people just love the concept of lockdown. Time to get this vaccinations program up and running and open up our economy and make a start at paying back the people who have lost the most in this pandemic.
@Charlie Murphy: no such thing as a lockdown lover. Just the majority of people who actually care enough to do what is needed to protect those around them. Your comment says more about you than them, a selfish so n so
@Joe_X: is there absolutely no other possible motive you might attribute to people who do not agree with lockdowns Joe?
@Alan Gee: I don’t like lockdowns either. We end up taking them as a last resort because some people put themselves first instead of following the guidelines that were laid out so lockdowns can be lifted. In March people were asked to do the social distancing and be careful who was around them, and what happened – we got the scenes from Templebar which led to the 1st lockdown. 2nd lockdown kicked of because the way the numbers exploded a week and a half after the pubs were reopened because of selfishness. People were asked to wear face coverings going into shops after the first lockdown yet you still see people, without a genuine reason not to waltzing into shops without them. Why….because no one tell them what to do.
Result: here we are at the start of lockdown no.3. Thanks lads!
@Alan Gee: and then those same people deride the mojority who do what is needed to keep those around them safe. So yes Alan….selfishness.
@Joe_X: if you actually took the time to think about the pandemic it may become clear that the comments here are largely broken down into sub groups…there are the eternal pessimists and the optimists…most of the Irish media is sensationalist and apocalyptic IMO and there are many here who lap it up…you need to figure out what category you fall into…but having to resort to insult when responding to a general opinion is a pretty good indicator of a limited intellect
Great news, let’s hope it can bring some sort of normality back.
The first step on the road to normality returning. Unless you’re an anti-vax loon, this is fantastic news.
The government and HSE officials should have deferred their holidays, get the vaccine roll out up and running and then take holidays.
But not in Ireland, it’s Christmas Time.
Hook it to my veins
I saw in the news everyone taking pictures of the fridges in Ireland. Meanwhile in germany they have constructed huge vaccination centres to start . While we are still taking pictures.
@Allison Smith: Politicians hoping to squeeze out a few votes here. Little do they understand that this delay will be just another thing to cost them preferences next election.
@Fachtna Roe: I know its fashionable and cool to knock politicians at every opportunity but the truth is that the Health service is an unmanageable nightmare. It is still essentially a paper driven bureaucracy driven by special interest groups and a fairly un-sackable HSE and DoH senior management. There’s been little or no embracing of technology outside of basic record keeping, accounting etc. The ability to adapt to the fast moving situation we find ourselves in us limited and slow.
@Derdaly: I can only assure you that I might be the least fashionable person alive. :)
As for the “unmanageable nightmare”, I don’t doubt that. I know there are lots of really capable and enthusiastic people working in the system, and I have heard of and seen the paper operation that dulls their capabilities and enthusiasm.
Today I heard the CEO of HSE on Radio 1 answer the question why there was a delay, and am still none the wiser: the interviewer let it slide. If the explanation had been that they were too disorganised, I’d have been happier just to have heard the truth.
What a let down it would be if the vaccine doesn’t reduce transmission.
@Michael Philips: or had nasty side effects
@Michael Philips: Pfizer one doesn’t. Moderna vaccine is showing signs that it could
@Critical Thinker: source/further info?
@Michael Philips: interesting question. A traditional vaccine helps by mimicking disease agent and help recognize and combat viruses before it has time to multiple and harm the host. You body then ‘knows’ it is a foreign agent and is apt to produce antibodies much faster to fight the virus before it invade your body. In theory this would greatly reduce your viral load. However, there are actually no study indicating that Rna based vaccines are sterilizing due to its nature.
To those concerned about the 4 day delay, one possibility, there is going to be a team of vaccinators going around various nursing homes interacting with very vulnerable people. Could the delay be to ensure these vaccinators have quarantined, or even gotten the vaccine and begun to develop immunity, so that covid isn’t inadvertently spread again within the nursing homes?
@D Mems: More likely it’s due to our screwed up health service that’s no longer fit for purpose mainly due to archaic unions and years of poor government policy.
@D Mems: yet every other country has been ready to go the day after vaccine approval! This is the most anticipated vaccine I’m history, it’s not difficult to have a plan based on expected arrival.
@D Mems: no. It’s due to the fact that the HSE didn’t order pharmaceutical fridges on time. Extra capacity is needed to store the vaccines before use. Existing fridges cannot simply be emptied. I know that one major hospital won’t get their fridges until early next week
@D Mems: No, HSE covid testing health staff have been visiting nursing homes since the start of the outbreak. Full PPE is worn by these testers. The vaccination teams will also wear full PPE when in the homes, so no need for quarantine.
@Critical Thinker: the fridges have been sitting there for weeks, and considering we only got 10,000 vacinnes, storage capacity for that amount is more than provided for, that also doesn’t explain the 4 day delay to roll it out, it only explains the overall length of the vaccination programme.
@Derdaly: but no other country screwed up protecting nursing homes at the beginning like we did, perhaps it’s made the HSE risk adverse as to starting the roll-out
@Stephen Deegan: In my wife’s nursing home most of the staff still positive from recent outbreak I was wondering if vaccine is mandatory for staff? I know some of staff members saying they won’t be taking vaccine for now because they not fully recovered from the virus some won’t be taking vaccine at all.
@D Mems:
Even if those doing the vacinating it was well known when the vacine was ariving so the 14 day quarintene should have being done so that they were ready to start when required
The HSE and NPHET should be questioned why the delay, is it due to it being the holidays as usual,
@Mark Malone: next you will be telling us the chronic staff shortages in the HSE is the fault of the unions.
@D Mems: the -70 freezers are there but not the extra everyday pharmaceutical fridges that the vaccines need to be transferred to. I know this for a fact. Some places have them, but many others don’t. I know that deliveries of fridges to certain places including major hospitals are not expected until next week. Some vaccination centres didn’t even order new fridges until last week.
@D Mems: nearly every country screwed up nursing homes, the army had to remove bodies in Spain, ours was more shocking because we saw what was happening in advance and still didn’t react. The UK, US and Sweden reacted even later.
The most likely explanation is that a plan and staff were engaged for vaccination on the 30th, as the original date for approval was the 29th. Approval came a week early and our health service couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt it’s plan. Nothing unexpected there given its 20+ year historical performance.
Meanwhile in Ireland the HSE are on their Christmas break can’t have covid vaccines ruining that!!!!!!!!!
There won’t be a rush on the next batch arriving if we weren’t ready to administer this one ..
I hope they’re not coming by Fastway.
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