When the physician Ifeanyi Nsofor and his wife received the two doses of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in Nigeria, they assumed they could travel to their preferred European destination this summer. They were wrong.
The couple – like millions of people vaccinated through an initiative supported by United Nations– could be banned from entering many European countries and other places because those countries they do not recognize the version made in India of the drug among those accepted for travel.
Although the European Union drug regulatory agency has licensed the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Europe, batches of the same vaccine manufactured in India they are not included in the list.
EU authorities say AstraZeneca you have not completed the paperwork necessary for the Indian factory, including giving details on its production and quality controls.
EU authorities say AstraZeneca has not completed the necessary paperwork for the Indian factory. Photo: AFP
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Discriminatory and unscientific
But some experts describe the European decision as discriminatory and unscientific, and they point out that the World Health Organization has inspected and authorized the factory.
The health authorities indicate that the situation not only complicates international travel and frustrates fragile economiesIt also undermines confidence in vaccines by marking some varieties as poor quality.
As the vaccination rate grows across Europe and other wealthy countries, authorities eager to save the summer tourism season have been relaxing border restrictions associated with the coronavirus.
The EU presented its COVID-19 digital certificate, which allows residents of the bloc to move around the 27 countries as long as they are vaccinated with one of the four drugs authorized by the European Medicines Agency, have a recent negative test or present evidence that they have recently recovered from the virus.
Although the United States and Britain remain largely closed to outside visitors, the EU certificate is seen as a possible model for travel in the COVID-19 era and as a way to boost the economy.
The EU also officially accepts vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna y Johnson & Johnson. Does not include the version of AstraZeneca made in India nor many others used in developing countries, such as those produced in China and Russia.
Each EU country is free to apply its own rules for travelers from inside and outside the block, and their rules can vary widely.or, what creates more confusion for tourists. Several EU countries, such as Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, allow entry to people who received vaccines not included in the EU list. Others, like France and Italy, do not.
“A rude awakening”
For Nsofor, the realization that he could be banned was “a rude awakening.” After a hard year working on the pandemic in Abuja, Nsofor and his wife were looking forward to a vacation in Europe with their two young daughters, perhaps admiring the Eiffel Tower in Paris or tour Salzburg, in Austria.
Ifeanyi Nsofor at her home in Abuja, Nigeria. Photo: AP
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Nsofor noted that the Indian-made vaccine it received has been authorized by WHO for emergency use and was distributed by COVAX, a United Nations-backed program to bring vaccines to poor corners of the world.
WHO authorization required a visit to the plant of the Serum Institute of India to verify that it had good manufacturing practices and that quality standards were met.
“We are grateful to the EU for funding COVAX, but now basically discriminate against a vaccine they financed and actively promoted, ” Nsofor said.
“This will only boost all kinds of conspiracy theories about the vaccine we receive in Africa It is not as good as what they have for them in the West. ”
Stoke mistrust
Ivo Vlaev, a professor at the British University of Warwick who advises the government on behavioral sciences during the pandemic, he agreed that the attitude of western countries in rejecting vaccines used in poor countries it could fuel mistrust.
“The people who I was already looking at the vaccines with suspicion It will make it even more so, ” Vlaev said. “They could also lose confidence in public health messages from governments and be less willing to comply with COVID regulations.”
Dr. Mesfin Teklu Tessema, director of health for the International Rescue Committee, said countries that have declined to recognize WHO-licensed vaccines are acting against scientific evidence.
“Vaccines that have met WHO requirements must be accepted. Otherwise, there seems to be an element of racism here,” he noted.
WHO urged countries to recognize all the vaccines it has licensed, including two made in China. Countries that do not do so are “undermining confidence in the vital vaccines that have already been shown to be safe and effective, affecting vaccine acceptance and could be putting billions of people at risk, ” the United Nations health agency said in a statement this month.
Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted in June that he was concerned that vaccinated Indian citizens had problems traveling to the EU, and noted that it would take the issue to the highest levels of countries and regulatory agencies.
Stefan De Keersmaeker, a spokesman for the European Commission, said last week that regulatory agencies they were obliged to check the production process in the Indian plant.
“We are not trying to create doubts about this vaccine,” said the spokesman for the EU executive branch.
AstraZeneca said it had recently submitted documentation about the Indian factory to the European regulatory agency. It did not indicate why it had not done so earlier, before the institution’s initial decision in January.
Public health experts warned that countries that do not recognize WHO-endorsed vaccines are complicating global efforts for resuming travel safely.
Nsofor and his wife are now thinking of traveling to Singapore or East Africa. Photo: AP
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“You cannot isolate countries from the rest of the world indefinitely, ” said Dr Raghib Ali of the University of Cambridge. “Excluding some people in some countries for the vaccine they received is totally inconsistent because we know that these licensed vaccines are extremely protective.”
Nsofor said he and his wife were still deciding where to spend their summer holidays, leaning towards Singapore or East Africa.
“I hadn’t realized that there were so many layers to vaccine inequality, ” he said.
The author is a journalist for the Associated Press
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