British Prime Minister Boris Johnson received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday. The applied immunizer was that developed by AstraZeneca / Oxford.
“I literally didn’t feel anything. It was very good, very fast,” said the Prime Minister, after receiving the injection at St. Thomas Hospital in London. “When you receive your notification [para receber a vacina], Please go. It’s the best thing for you, your family, and everyone. “
Boris, 56, took the vaccine at the same hospital where he spent three nights in the intensive care unit (ICU) after contracting the virus last year. After much criticism of the conduct of the pandemic, the UK is on track to meet the goal of providing the first dose of the vaccine to half of its adult population, making it one of the fastest vaccination in the world.
The success of the campaign has helped the government regain leadership in opinion polls on the main opposition party, the Labor Party, after the Prime Minister was accused of acting too slowly to prevent the virus from spreading. spread. Boris was one of the last European leaders to adopt restrictive measures, even when the pandemic was already affecting much of the continent.
The fact that the British Prime Minister received a dose produced by AstraZeneca is symbolic, since several European countries had suspended the use of the immunizer after some vaccines reported the development of clots.
On Thursday, however, the EMA, the European medicines regulator, declared the vaccine safe, although the pharmacological risk group (Prac), which analyzed cases of a rare venous disease, said it did not It was not possible to rule out the relationship between immunizers and side effects. .
Therefore, the EMA will include in the vaccine information for healthcare professionals and patients a warning about symptoms to look out for after vaccination.
Some countries have already reversed the decision to suspend the use of the immunizer. In Italy, the government will campaign to encourage uptake of the vaccine, while in Portugal, the government has warned that anyone who refuses to take the dose of AstraZeneca will go all the way – and even then, will not be able to. . choose which product to take in turn.
The French health authority, for its part, determined on Friday (19) that AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine would only apply to people over 55 years of age. The country’s Prime Minister Jean Castex, 55, was pictured on Friday receiving the first dose of AstraZeneca.
The operation aims to reverse a drop in confidence in the immunizer caused by the suspension – in France, which has a greater presence of anti-vaccination campaigners, only 20% of the population said they trusted the vaccine.
Doubt persists in some countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, which have decided to maintain the strike. In Belgium, where none of the vaccinations have been suspended, spokesman Yves Van Laethem said there are so few reports of problems that “stopping the campaign would be more damaging than anything else”.
The vaccine made by the British pharmaceutical company has also been at the center of tensions between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The European Commission declined to comment on the shutdown announced by nearly 20 of its members, in a move that has been attributed to political motivations within the bloc.
On Wednesday (17), the European Union raised its tone against the United Kingdom, which it accuses of not acting with “reciprocity and proportionality” in the supply of vaccines. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc had already exported around 10 million doses to the UK, but UK factories had not shipped immunizers to the bloc.