It Is Not True That All Critical Groups of Citizens Have Been Vaccinated

So far, not all of the critical groups of citizens have been vaccinated, but only the priority ones from these groups. All critical infrastructure institutions submitted lists to the Ministry of Health with staff interested in vaccination. Of these people who applied, only a part was vaccinated. With available 24 thousand vaccines from the COVAX mechanism from “Astra Zeneca” – a vaccine that can be given only to adults over 60 years, the donation from “Pfizer” (8190 doses) and “Sputnik” from Serbia – 20,000 vaccines and Abu Dhabi donation of 2,000 vaccines, as well as 6,000 Sputnik V vaccines, it is not possible to fully vaccinate critical groups of citizens at high risk of developing an infection

 

Assessed by: Miroslava Burns

 

The Minister of Health Venko Filipce on 12 April 2021 in front of the sports arena “Boris Trajkovski”, after the vaccination of journalists and media workers began, made a statement in which he told a lie.

All those who have the highest risk and who participate in the management of the crisis from the beginning, members of the Ministry of Interior, the Army, employees in schools from 1st to 3rd grade, nurses in kindergartens, employees in technical groups in the Parliament, are fully vaccinated. Today it is the turn of the group through the association of journalists who by timely informing the public are a key link in managing the health crisis, said Filipce.

[Source: MIA (3,06 minute); date: 12 April 2021]

 

EXPLANATION:

 

Later that day, the statement of Minister Venko Filipce was presented on his official Facebook profile:

The critical groups of citizens, i.e. all those who have a high risk of infection, are fully vaccinated. Vaccinated are all those who expressed interest in it and applied, namely health workers, members of the Ministry of Interior, the army and teachers from first to third grade, employees of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy – nurses and educators, and today were vaccinated journalists and media workers through the Association of Journalists. During the day and tomorrow, vaccination will be conducted for those interested from the justice system, i.e. the employees in the Parliament of RNM, and from Wednesday the other vaccines from Sputnik V will be distributed in the vaccination system for the population, and the vaccination by age will continue in the A1 Arena Boris Trajkovski.

The comments below this post show a number of reactions from critical groups of citizens who are afraid of developing an infection and who have not been vaccinated.

The National Immunization Plan defines the priority groups of citizens, according to the plan and according to the guidelines and recommendations and basic principles of the WHO, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts, Covax and EMA and FDA regulatory bodies, as well as relevant national institutions and commissions in the country. It follows from this document that vaccination has only just begun for all critical groups of citizens, but not that critical groups of citizens have been fully vaccinated, as the Minister of Health claims in his speech.

According to the national immunization plan, the first phase involves health workers in the first line of response in hospital settings with a very high risk of acquiring and transmitting infection. Then, health professionals are listed as having a moderate risk of acquiring and transmitting the infection, and older adults at high risk of developing illness, complications, and death outcome, defined as age-based risk – older than 70 years.

According to the national immunization plan, in the first phase of vaccination, there is very limited availability of vaccines, i.e. available amounts of vaccines for one to ten percent of the total population.

Given this, it is not true that all of the critical groups of citizens have been vaccinated, i.e. all those who have a high risk of infection, but only the priority ones of these groups. All critical infrastructure institutions submitted lists to the Ministry of Health with staff interested in vaccination. Of these people who applied, not all were vaccinated, but only some of the listed departments.

In fact, only 24 thousand vaccines have been delivered to the country so far through the COVAX mechanism. Prior to that, donations arrived from Serbia from the “Pfizer” vaccine (intended for health workers from the Covid centers, 8190 doses) and the “Sputnik” vaccine (20 thousand doses). Vaccines sufficient for vaccination and revaccination of 3 thousand citizens from the Russian manufacturer Sputnik V have also arrived. Abu Dhabi donated 2,000 Chinese vaccines. Hence, it is quite impossible to completely vaccinate critical groups of citizens. Especially because every citizen who is vaccinated must be revaccinated with a vaccine from the same manufacturer, which means that every citizen needs two doses of the vaccine.

At the press conference the same day, the Minister was asked when the chronically ill citizens will be vaccinated, who, since the beginning of the pandemic have been pointed out as high-risk groups, special measures were taken for them at the beginning of the pandemic that relieved them of work responsibilities, to which he replied that they would be vaccinated according to their age. So, the chronically ill, who are present in all possible age groups, are not fully vaccinated. As more vaccines arrive, the age group for vaccination will decrease and the chronically ill will be prioritized in that age group.

The same day the statement was made, the minister also said that a donation of 2,000 vaccines was coming from Abu Dhabi, and that they would be added to two vaccination mechanisms, first in the age group and second in the critical infrastructure mechanism. This means that the critical infrastructure is not fully vaccinated if new vaccines are added to the mechanism for their vaccination according to the received shipments.

Thus, the chronically ill are not fully vaccinated, as they are present in all age groups. Journalists under the age of 40 are also not vaccinated as new shipments of vaccines await them. Not all pharmaceutical technicians, dental nurses, or other health care assistants have been vaccinated.

In the same statement, the Minister mentions that 25 thousand citizens have been vaccinated so far. They also include adults over 77 years of age for whom the vaccines of the manufacturer “Astra Zeneca” are intended, because that vaccine in the country is not given to people under 60 with a decision of the health authorities, as a precaution after rare thrombotic reactions in some younger patients who have received it in European countries.

Hence, with only 24,000 vaccines available from the COVAX mechanism from Astra Zeneca – a vaccine that can only be given to people over 60, a donation from Pfizer (8,190 doses), Sputnik vaccines from Serbia – 20,000 vaccines and a donation from Abu Dhabi of 2 thousand vaccines, as well as 6 thousand vaccines Sputnik V, it is not possible to fully vaccinate critical groups of citizens who are at high risk of developing an infection. Only some of them can be vaccinated.

 

 

 

 

---

This article has been produced as part of the Rapid Response to Vaccine Disinformation Project, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. It was originally published in Truthmeter, and is made possible by the support of (BTD – The Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States). The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, BTD or their partners.

---

 

 

 

All comments and remarks regarding this and other Vistinomer articles, correction and clarification requests as well as suggestions for fact-checking politicians’ statements and political parties’ promises can be submitted by using this form