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  • 05-01-2021 19:28

EU/Presidency: PM sees need to ease citizens' anxiety about Covid-19 vaccines

EU/Presidency: PM sees need to ease citizens anxiety about Covid-19 vaccines

Lisbon, Jan. 5, 2021 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister, António Costa, on Tuesday warned of the need to take action to lessen citizens' anxiety about being vaccinated against Covid-19, noting that programmes underway are to cover 450 million people in the European Union and run through "the whole of this year".

Costa made his comments at a joint press conference with the European Council President, Charles Michel, after a meeting between the two men at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon - the first formal act of Portugal's six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Asked whether not enough doses vaccines had been ordered by the European Commission to meet the needs of EU residents, not least because some vaccines produced by multinationals have not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency, the prime minister argued that "we need to be aware of the moment in human history" and put it into perspective.

"Never before has a vaccination process been under way in which 450 million people in Europe alone will be vaccinated," he stressed. "It must be understood that neither are 450 million doses produced in one day, nor are 450 million doses administered in one day. This is a process that will last the whole of 2021."

In relation to the vaccination timetable laid out by the European Commission, Costa said that "it could change, either because companies were unable to increase production capacity, or because there could be problems throughout the production process.

"We have to be able to manage our anxiety," he said, adding that he could "well understand that everyone is fed up with this threat from Covid-19."

The prime minister then praised the commission's action on vaccination, pointed out that each EU member state has "the freedom to define its own vaccination plan" and expressed confidence that all members are doing their best to achieve the necessary objectives.

"The bulk of the vaccination will take place in the second and third quarters of this year, but the plan is still being developed until the first quarter of next year," he said. "We must be aware that the discovery of the vaccine, its subsequent production, purchase, distribution and inoculation will not take place in a day."

The vaccination process, he stressed, "requires method, determination and execution".

Earlier, in a response to another question, the prime minister had said that he, like other European political leaders, "are keeping their fingers crossed" for the European Medicines Agency to approve more vaccines against Covid-19.

"But in this approval, we know that the fundamental criterion is safety," he added.

GMP/ARO // ARO.

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