The skid of the vaccination campaigns against covid in some of the European Union countries worries the European Council, which fears that the formidable logistical and health deployment launched since the beginning of the year to stop the spread of the virus in the Old continent. And the warning signal has come this Thursday from the summit held in Brussels, where the conclusions document indicates that “efforts must be intensified to overcome doubts [para vacunarse], as well as tackling misinformation, particularly from social media platforms ”. The EU describes the situation in some community partners as “very serious” and calls for vigilance to be maintained against the possible appearance of new variants of the virus.
The probability of mutation of the virus is directly proportional to the number of infections. The more it is disseminated, the more opportunities it has to evolve, although the vast majority of the changes that take place in its structure are inconsequential. Experts believe that there is a possibility that one of these variations makes it more dangerous or produces what they call an “immune escape” (that the vaccines lose effectiveness), although they do not see it very likely.
The growth of infections in Eastern Europe contributes to adding a few more numbers to this lottery that is played around the world. On the map of the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC), the eastern part of the EU is drawn in dark colors, while the western part is mostly green and yellow, a sign of high and low rates of diagnoses, respectively.
The 14-day cumulative incidence in Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria is close to 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; Romania has reached a thousand; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania far exceed them and are now experiencing one of their great waves of covid. Meanwhile, in Spain it is around 50, according to ECDC data (43.2, according to the Ministry of Health).
The conclusions of the European summit do not point to any specific partner. But everyone present in the European Council room is aware that the most alarming data points to Romania, Bulgaria or Latvia, where vaccination rates remain significantly below the 70% that the EU average reached at the end of August. Some of the countries lagging behind in vaccination are now suffering the blow of the pandemic that others went through in the first wave of spring 2020. And a year and a half later, the tragic scenes in the western part of the EU are repeated in the east as in a tragic mirror.
This same Thursday, the European Commission has announced a whole deployment of means to help Romania, one of the countries hardest hit by the wave of infections this fall. The operation, coordinated by the Commission, has had the contribution of medical supplies from five countries (Austria, France, Poland, Denmark and Italy).
Bucharest will receive medicines, respirators, ventilators and oxygen concentrators, among other products that the Commission considers essential to “respond to the treatment of the large number of patients infected with covid-19” in Romania. Medical personnel from Moldova have also arrived in the country and the overflow of Romanian hospitals has forced covid-19 patients who cannot be treated to transfer to Hungary.
In many of these high-incidence countries, vaccination rates are low. There is a certain correlation between both factors: in general, today, the areas with more people with the complete pattern register fewer infections. Although punctures are not totally sterilizing, and those who receive them can infect and become infected, they reduce the risk, so they most likely have a role in reducing diagnoses. But it would be a mistake to blame vaccines entirely for these differences.
As Pedro Gullón, from the Spanish Epidemiology Society, explains, care must be taken when interpreting “static photos” of the epidemiological moment in each place. “The eastern countries are in a moment of growth of its wave, and we know that the covid ends up going as with cycles of more or less two months. I think you have to avoid the speeches of causality at all times and try to see all the dynamics ”.
Daniel López Acuña, former director of the World Health Organization, agrees: “The issue is not related to the percentage of vaccination, but to maintaining protective measures and avoiding unprotected social interactions. And the eastern countries that have high incidences not only have low vaccination, but they have relaxed restrictions ”.
What does influence vaccination is hospital saturation. Romania, with a coverage of only 30%, is experiencing its worst crisis in Intensive Care Units since the pandemic began.
Until now, the EU has also been extremely cautious when it comes to ruling on EU partners who have lagged behind in vaccination campaigns so as not to encourage suspicions in the face of very visible pressure in favor of the puncture. But the gap in the vaccination ratio between countries and regions has not stopped growing and is already reaching levels that community institutions are beginning to consider alarming.
The conclusions of the summit set off alarms. “The situation in some member states continues to be very serious,” indicate the text agreed at the diplomatic level shortly before the meeting of the leaders of the 27 governments of the Union. The conclusions of the summit indicate that “it is necessary to remain vigilant in the face of the appearance and spread of potential new variants”, a risk that, according to experts, is greater in countries with low vaccination rates.
Brussels fears that the renewed virulence of the pandemic in some areas of the EU will drag down or cap the economic boom that has facilitated containment of the virus in countries with the highest vaccination rates. At the European summit this week, precisely, the 27 have given the starting gun for the relaxation of the limitations to the movement imposed between many countries during the first waves of infections.
“Resistance to the vaccine is high in some countries and mortality levels are reaching worrying levels,” says a community source. The disparity in vaccination rates became apparent as soon as the vaccination campaigns reached their cruising speed starting in April. But its entrenchment and deterioration over the months has accentuated the concern of the community authorities.
And the risk of disturbances in the internal market or cracks in free movement is growing because in most countries the ceiling of the population willing to be vaccinated voluntarily is being reached. And in some of the partners, this threshold is becoming excessively low both to guarantee the protection of its own population and to facilitate cross-border mobility without increasing the risk of causing new outbreaks or, in the worst case, the appearance of new ones. variants that could jump quickly from one country to another.
#warns #risk #variants #countries #lag #vaccination