Coronavirus: don’t think or rethink ‘which vaccine’ you’re getting, adviser says

Around 7,000 people who were affected by the postponement of AstraZeneca vaccinations will be called on Monday and Tuesday to rebook their appointments, it was announced on Friday.

According to acting head of the state medical services Dr Olga Kalakouta, 7,278 people were affected and they will be called to reschedule. The vaccination portal will be open from 8 am on Monday and throughout Tuesday for these people to rebook their appointments.

Speaking at a press conference on the programme, Kalakouta said vaccinations resumed on Friday of people registered to be inoculated with the AstraZeneca jab after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light for continuation of its use.

In the meantime, the government urged people to trust the EMA and other competent international authorities as regards the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It ruled the vaccine was safe and not associated with an increased risk of thrombosis.

“Vaccination is the only weapon to deal effectively with the pandemic and its consequences,” head of the president’s press office Victoras Papadopoulos said.

To encourage people to not shun the AstraZeneca vaccine, Government Spokesman Kyriacos Koushos was vaccinated on Friday.

Kalakouta said in total 129,000 vaccinations have been carried out so far, with 93,435 of these concerning the first dose. So far, 1,491 people in vulnerable groups have been vaccinated.

The first phase started on December 27 and finished at the end of January, with the vaccination of nursing home residents and staff. Kalakouta said this led to creating a “shield of protection” for this group of people.

The vaccination of frontline health care professionals and of people over 80 ended at the end of January while until the end of February, vaccinations were completed of people over 70.

The vaccination of people in vulnerable groups has already started and continues. The ad hoc committee appointed by the health minister to prioritise these groups, she said, carried out a very large volume of work and with a lot of effort managed locate them through various sources, so that they are gradually notified to go get vaccinated.

Patients with severe chronic kidney disease and hemoglobinopathies have already been vaccinated while inoculations of people with immunodeficiency have almost been completed.

Other patients given priority are those with chronic respiratory disease, congenital heart failure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, people with a history of transplantation, obese people with body mass index over 40, quadriplegics and people with special needs. Priority was also given to relatives of people with heart diseases and in total 120 have expressed interest in being vaccinated.

Experts also referred to side-effects of the vaccines and the issue of AstraZeneca.

The health ministry’s vaccination adviser, Christos Petrou, addressing the scepticism observed on the use of AstraZeneca, called on people to promptly seize the opportunity for vaccination without “thinking and rethinking which vaccine we are getting.”

“Speed is an important part of the vaccine success,” he said. Petrou referred to Israel that has vaccinated a large part of its population, and where “people have now started getting their lives back.”  Israel has introduced a “Green Pass” for its citizens, which is a government-validated certificate of vaccination or immunity. Gyms, swimming pools, theatres and hotels are open to pass-holders only.

According to acting head of the pharmaceutical services, Elena Panayiotopoulou, by March 17, there were 107 reports of suspected adverse reactions possibly related to vaccination out of a total of 127,783 vaccinations.

Of these, 66 concerned the Pfizer vaccine, 40 AstraZeneca and one Moderna. Ninety-nine of these reports concerned mild or moderate adverse reactions and eight were more severe but were not found to be related to vaccination because they were related to people with underlying conditions or receiving medication. More women than men had filed these reports, she said.

Panayiotopoulou, however, said that the onset of diseases can occur at any moment, while the time of their appearance does not mean correlation with the vaccination. She explained that when patients submit side effects for any vaccination or medication through the yellow card portal (kitrini karta), the department of pharmacovigilance and clinical trials collects and evaluates these reports and forwards them to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

When a serious issue of drug safety is identified, a thorough investigation is launched by EMA and once the side effect is confirmed, various actions are taken. The pharmaceutical company concerned is asked to make changes in the summary of product characteristics (SPC) or could even see revocation of its marketing authorisation.