Almost all of Europe decided to stop administering the AstraZeneca vaccine. Belgium not. We continue. “We have to be careful with these kinds of chain reactions,” says Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (SP.A)
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Why the choice to continue? That question was presented to the minister on Tuesday morning The morning on Radio 1. “The health of people who have been vaccinated is much better than the people who have not been vaccinated. Especially with older people. We will not let go of the older population. We have just started a major vaccination campaign. And they are vulnerable if they become infected. We know that our vaccines provide good protection against this. And we want to protect them. Especially now that the pandemic is gaining momentum, ”says Vandenbroucke.
“But it is of course also important that those vaccines are safe. That is essential. But we want data on adverse events to be collected at European level and thoroughly investigated. We do not have any data that would show that it is better not to vaccinate or to vaccinate. But if Europe draws conclusions, we will of course follow them. We do not think it is prudent to stop administering a vaccine at a time when the virus is circulating like this. ”
The minister therefore regrets that it was suddenly decided in many European countries to stop. “It’s a kind of waterfall of decisions. I spoke with my Portuguese colleague yesterday. There they decided to suspend the vaccination campaign, but they have no data to do so. They probably will not like to be confronted with cases (of people with side effects, ed.) for which they have no explanation. But people are much more at risk if they become infected with Covid than if they are faced with side effects. Covid is a serious disease. ”
“We are never going to get Europe vaccinated like this. Then we’re going to get a third, fourth, fifth wave. We have to be careful with those chain reactions, ”he said.
Alarm signal
Vandenbroucke also indicated that he was clearly concerned about the current corona figures in our country. “They are very disturbing. There is a lot of circulation. And it is also rising sharply. We see a strong increase in hospital admissions. And the occupancy rate of the Intensive Care is starting to fill up. This must be more than an alarm, ”he said. And emphasized once again that there should be as much work from home as possible. “If we want to reopen the schools after the Easter holidays, we have to be much more careful today.”
The current discussions about the placement of terraces are therefore misplaced by the minister. “That is totally out of the question. The discussion is mistaken. Everyone yearns for freedom. But we have to put the facts on the table. And they are annoying. But together we can handle that. We have already proven it in the past. ”
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