In Belgium, “the sixth dose was wind”
“The Belgian vaccination campaign looks more and more like a procession from Echternach”, describe The evening. Every year for Pentecost, thousands of pilgrims stroll through the Luxembourg city, at the rate of three steps forward and two steps back. A bit like the authorities of the kingdom, where the acceleration of the campaign announces the vaccination against Covid-19 will not take place. Worse, “we already put our foot on the brake pedal”, regret everyday life.
On the evening of January 19, Flanders announced that it was temporarily suspending vaccination in hospitals, because Pfizer “is unable to guarantee a secure supply of its vaccines in the coming weeks”. According to The evening, “this problem has nothing to do” with the delivery delays in Europe announced by Pfizer and BioNTech on January 15. The reason is to be found in the contract signed between Belgium and the laboratories of the American company.
A contract for doses, not vials
On January 8, the European Medicines Agency approved the use of an additional dose per vial of the American vaccine, increasing from five to six doses. As in France and elsewhere in Europe, this dose “free and ‘providential’” should allow Belgium to inject 20% more vaccines without waiting for new deliveries.
“Problem, to resume The eveningthe contract signed between Belgium and Pfizer is calculated on the basis of doses and not vials… Pfizer having learned that Belgium was extracting six doses from its vials, it consequently revised downwards the number of vials delivered”, 76 trays of 195 bottles instead of 92.
While the second doses must be administered these days to residents of nursing homes and the first to nursing staff in the country, this readjustment “upsets all the planning carried out by the regions”. The three regions of the country will have to adjust their planning, according to Sabine Stordeur, of the working group on vaccination in Belgium, quoted by the French-language daily: “It remains a commercial company, it should come as no surprise. It was a mistake to believe that you could win a dose.
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