Forget herd immunity. In Europe, it emerged this week that ‘herd mentality’ was the dominant force in the fight against COVID-19.
On Monday, Germany hoisted a red flag and temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to investigate possible links to blood clots after seven cases of thrombosis occurred in the 1.6 million patients vaccinated with the vaccine in Germany; three cases were fatal. In response, another dozen European countries pulled up behind Berlin and dropped the vaccine to further investigate and stop already anemic COVID vaccination programs.
To date, less than 5 percent of European citizens have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, compared to 13 percent in the U.S., hampered by a shortage of doses, ‘the rollout of vaccines in Europe looks more like a crawl’ ” ‘Roland Freudenstein, policy director of Martens Center, a Brussels think tank, told Yahoo News. He says the United States, where 23 percent of citizens have had at least one shot, appears to be a “glowing example” of how to quickly reverse the COVID crisis. The discontinuation of the AstraZeneca vaccine has further muddyed the waters for some Americans, some of whom have surprising numbers of ambivalent feelings about being vaccinated.
On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency, the European regulatory arm, re-ignited the AstraZeneca shot, compiled by the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company and the University of Oxford, after investigating the matter, saying: ‘It is’ a safe and effective vaccine. “The insurance has forced most countries to turn off course. French Prime Minister Jean Castex and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were among those who rolled up their sleeves for the AstraZeneca shot on Friday. But the damage to public confidence, at least for the moment, has been done.
“People are afraid that this vaccine could be dangerous,” Dr José Martín Moreno, an epidemiologist and professor of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Valencia in Spain, told El Pais. Europeans, he said, “do not know what to believe.” And it comes at a time when the continent is being hit by a third COVID wave: Italy as well as Paris and Hamburg are once again under lock and key, threatening a threat to all of Germany, France and beyond.
The confusing episode about AstraZeneca vaccinations could have a ripple effect, blurring the vaccination issue not only for EU citizens, but for at least some Americans. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not yet used in the US, although the Trump administration has ordered 300 million doses, of which millions are in stock.
Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy and sociology at the University of California, Riverside, said the European flap “poisons the vaccine” for the many Americans who are already “vaccine-reluctant.” According to an NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist poll among Americans released last Friday, 30 percent of respondents said they do not intend to be vaccinated for COVID-19, while 3 percent said they still uncertain.
Carpiano said those who are skeptical about vaccines are a diverse group; some are affected by disinformation and misinformation, some conspiracy, some members of ethnic groups are historically distrustful of medical care, and others are concerned about the vaccination while pregnant. “We see a lot of small groups with different reasons that are really becoming a kind of hesitant ecosystem,” he said.
“Just the fact that this question mark has been raised will contribute to conspiracy theories about the state and pharmaceutical companies hiding evidence for the dangerous side effects of vaccines, which is apparently the root of many anti-waxer messages,” the sociologist said. Jonathan Kennedy, a lecturer in global public health at Queen Mary University of London. Kennedy’s research has led him to believe that ‘most people are pro-vaccines or simply do not know – and want to do what is best for their family. They just need to be persuaded. “They also need ‘clear and consistent messages’,’ he said, which was not the strong case of European or US officials during the pandemic.
Shobita Parthasarathy, a professor of public policy and director of the University of Michigan’s Science, Technology and Public Policy Program, believes European countries acted responsibly when they stopped using the vaccine to treat the handful of cases of patients who had blood clots. developed, to investigate. after receiving an AstraZeneca shot, three of which died. “Taking it seriously and looking at it was the only way they could take it – and a proof that they had done their job,” she said. If they had not done so, they would have fed the public’s growing distrust of agencies that they say do not reflect their concerns, Parthasarathy added.
Nevertheless, the fact that the message reversals marked the whole pandemic reflects, according to Parthasarathy, the need for honesty. In the conversation with the public, she constantly referred to the initial advice of the Coronavirus task force of the Trump administration that the general public should not wear masks, a message that dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert in infectious diseases, initially put forward.
‘The reason it was so devastating was it was mid-March 2020. The NBA closed. “Tom Hanks had COVID, everyone was listening and the first thing Fauci said was, ‘You don’t have to wear a mask,'” Parthasarathy said. “What he did not say was, ‘We have.’ a rare amount of PBT. We reserve masks for health workers. ” She believes that if reality had been spelled out, it would have made a difference and Americans spared the confusion that resulted when the message changed to ‘Wear a mask when you go out. ”
Parthasarathy believes that the messages in the US are now on track, just like the US vaccination program. “We succeed. We will mix through this. “Europe is in a much worse situation than we are about vaccines,” she said.
A recent poll by Wellcome Trust showed that only 47 percent of the French population believes vaccines are safe, and according to an Ipsos World Economic Forum survey from December last year, only 40 percent of French people plan to to be vaccinated, followed by 62 percent of Italians and Spaniards, and 65 percent of Germans. If the same percentages for COVID-19 are vaccinated, Europe will not only achieve its summer goal of having 70 percent of its population vaccinated – the percentage needed to achieve herd immunity – but the virus will continue to change, possibly in tribes that would threaten other parts of the world.
Despite the current bumps in vaccine deployment, Freudenstein is, for one, optimistic that situations can change for the better and quickly. He points to the US state only ten weeks ago, when COVID rates soared and the country looked at its most divided in decades. ‘After [the Capitol attack on] On January 6, the conventional wisdom in Europe was that the US was going to explode, ‘because they were unable to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic, as well as societal upheavals. ‘Look, a little over two months later, the US looks fantastic. And now Europeans seem to be a complete composition. ‘
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