Date Published: 03/12/2020
ARCHIVED - Spain approves the purchase of 52 million more Covid vaccines
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
WHO experts warn that coronavirus will remain with us for some time yet
The wave of optimism in Spain regarding recent developments which appear to have brought the widespread availability of Covid-19 vaccines a good deal closer received another boost on Tuesday when Cabinet gave its approval to the purchase of more than 52 million doses of the products developed by Moderna, Janssen and CureVac.
These purchases will supplement the agreements already reached with Pfizer and Astra Zéneca, whose vaccines are expected to become available in this country during 2021, and they reflect Spain’s continuing adherence to the buying policy adopted by the EU in the name of member states. The European Commission has so far reached purchase agreements with seven pharmaceutical companies, of which Spain has confirmed its participation in five.
Precise details have also been supplied by the Ministry of Health regarding the number of doses corresponding to Spain from the European Commission’s purchases: 20,875,725 doses of the Janssen vaccine, 8,348,979 doses of the Moderna product and 23,483,184 doses of the 225 million to be supplied to the EU by CureVac. Cabinet has also given permission to raise the budget for the Ministry of Health in order to make sure these purchases go ahead.
EMA approval to be fast-tracked over the next six weeks
In the meantime, the task of approving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is being approached by the European Medicines Agency with as much haste as possible, the intention being to issue authorization for the first of them on 29th December and the second on 12th January. This could lead to the first vaccinations in Spain taking place early in the new year (barring any last-minute hitches), making it possible to immunize at least 18 million people in this country.
In all, the EU has now closed deals to acquire almost 1,400 doses of different Covid Vaccines, of which the plan is to hold 600 million in reserve, and the proportion corresponding to Spain amounts to approximately 10 per cent. But Spain is also likely to take another 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine early in 2021 as the EU has an option to increase its order from 200 million to 300 million.
These and the Moderna vaccine are likely to form the bulk of the initial vaccination program, and clinical testing has given rates of 95 and 94.1 per cent effectiveness in the Pfizer and Moderna products respectively.
WHO warns that Covid-19 will not disappear overnight
But amid all this planning for mass vaccination programs in Spain and the rest of Europe it is worth remembering that the World Health Organization continues to express caution, warning that sufficient vaccines will not be available for at least another six months to prevent the spread of contagion. Mike Ryan, head of Health Emergencies at the WHO, warned that the initial immunization program should cause a drop in the death toll but the prevalence rate is likely to remain high, and that “intelligent measures” will still be needed to keep the pandemic under control.
In the same vein, María Van Kerkhove (Covid-19 technical director of the WHO) describes the vaccine as “one more tool to curb transmission” of the virus, but not as being equivalent to the end of the pandemic, and both specialists made a plea for a continuation of “responsible” behaviour at both individual and government levels.
At the same time, Mr Ryan warned that great efforts will be needed to persuade people to accept a vaccine which has been developed so rapidly, particularly among the younger generations, adding that the best form of treatment is prevention and that the arrival of vaccines does not mean that we can behave as if Covid-19 didn’t exist.