On the same day, 48,000 people were vaccinated in Romania and 655 in Bulgaria. This is a 5-fold lag behind other countries in the European Union. This was commented by the MEP Petar Vitanov. According to him, the issue of vaccines has gone beyond the medical aspects, and when there is a policy and trade in health care – citizens suffer from it.
Vitanov heads the Delegation of the Bulgarian Socialists in the European Parliament, he is also a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. He claims that bulgarian government’s policy on vaccination is short-sighted and puts people’s lives and health at risk. The MEP commented on the delayed deliveries from AstraZeneca and the suspicions that the company sells to third countries doses that are for the EU.
“The fears are that these doses go to the United Kingdom. Therefore, the European Commission may give Member States the right to ban the export of vaccines produced in the EU to third countries. In addition, any country can sue the manufacturer. My question is will the Bulgarian government have the courage to do so?”
The delay in deliveries will be most noticeable for our country, Vitanov said. He explained that most European countries have ordered different quantities of all 6 vaccines. He says:
“As a ratio, in European terms, the vaccines ordered by Pfizer-BioNTech are 26%, by Moderna – 8%, by AstraZeneca – 17%. In Bulgaria – by AstraZeneca 55% are ordered – mainly because of the lower price. We have planned wrongly and we have not diversified the risk. We have virtually no quantities. The other problem with AstraZeneca is that there are not enough reliable tests for the effectiveness of the vaccine for the age group over 65, and this is worrying.”
Vitanov stressed that we are in last place in terms of vaccination rate in the EU and gave specific figures:
“In Romania three days ago, 48,000 Romanians were vaccinated in one day. On the same day, 655 people were vaccinated in Bulgaria. In Israel, 50% of the population has already been vaccinated, in the United Arab Emirates – 30%, in the United Kingdom – 11%. in Denmark and Romania – 4%, the EU average is 2.5. We are still sitting at 0.4%. It is obvious that there is a problem in Bulgaria.”
“Yes, there will probably be vaccines, but how many human lives will we lose until they are delivered? Someone should be responsible for that. I’m afraid there will come a time when even those who want to be vaccinated will not have this opportunity because there will not be the necessary quantities”, he concluded.
