EU projecting unity as vaccine campaign begins
27-nation bloc starts coordinated rollout in COVID-19 fight
ROME — Doctors, nurses and the elderly rolled up their sleeves across the European Union to receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine Sunday in a symbolic show of unity and moment of hope for a continent confronting its worst healthcarecrisisinacentury.
Weeks after the U.S., Canada and Britain began inoculations with the same vaccine, the 27-nation bloc staged a coordinated rollout aimed at projecting a unified message that the shot was safe and Europe’s best chance to emerge from the pandemic.
For health care workers who have been battling the virus with only masks and shields to protect themselves, the vaccines represented an emotional relief as the virus continues to kill — nearly 1.8 million people around the world have died from COVID-19. But it was alsoapublicchanceforthem to urge Europe’s 450 million people to get the shots amid continued vaccine and virus skepticism.
“Today I’m here as a citizen, butmostofallasanurse, torepresentmycategoryand all the health workers who choose to believe in science,” said Claudia Alivernini, 29, the first person to be inoculated at the Spallanzani infectious disease hospital in Rome.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called the vaccine, which was developedinrecordtime, a“gamechanger.”
“We know that today is not the end of the pandemic, but it is the beginning of the victory,” he said.
Italian virus czar Domenico Arcuri said it was significant that Italy’s first doses were administered at Spallanzani, where a Chinese couple visiting from Wuhan tested positive in January and became Italy’s first confirmed cases.
Within weeks, northern Lombardy became the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe and a cautionary tale of what happens when even wealthy regions find themselves unprepared for a pandemic. Lombardy still accounts for around a third of the dead in Italy, which has the continent’s worst confirmed virus death toll at nearly 72,000.
“Today is a beautiful, symbolic day: All the citizens of Europe together are starting to get their vaccinations, the first ray of light afteralongnight,” Arcuritold reporters.
But he cautioned: “We all have to continue to be prudent, cautious and responsible. We still have a long road ahead, but finally we see a bit of light.”
The vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and American drugmaker Pfizer started arriving in supercold containers at EU hospitals Friday from a factory in Belgium. Each country was only getting a fraction of the doses needed — fewer than 10,000inthefirstbatchesfor some countries — with the bigger rollout expected in Januarywhenmorevaccines become available. All those getting shots Sunday have to come back for a second dose in three weeks.
In the Los Olmos nursing home in the Spanish city of Guadalajara, northeast of Madrid, 96-year-oldresident Araceli Hidalgo and a caregiverwerethefirstSpaniards to receive the vaccine.
“Let’s see if we can all behave and make this virus go away,” Hidalgo said.
Altogether, the EU’s 27 nationshaverecordedatleast 16 million coronavirus infections and more than 336,000 deaths — huge numbers that A resident of a nursing home winces while getting an injection of the COVID-19 vaccine Sunday in Cologne, Germany. The 27 countries in the European Union account for more than 16 million confirmed coronavirus infections and over 336,000 deaths. MARTIN MEISSNER/AP experts say still understate the true toll of the pandemic due to missed cases and limited testing.
Thevaccinationcampaign should ease frustrations that were building up, especially in Germany, as Britain, Canada and the United States kicked off their inoculation programs with the same vaccine weeks earlier.
In France, where many question the safety of vaccines, theFrenchgovernment has been cautious in its messaging and keen to ensure that it is not seen as forcing vaccinations on the public. France’s first vaccination at a nursing home in a poor area outside of Paris on Sunday was not broadcast on live television as it was elsewhere in Europe and no government ministers attended.
“We didn’t need to convince her. She said ‘yes, I’m ready for anything to avoid getting this disease,’” said Dr. Samir Tine, head of geriatric services for the Sevran nursing home where France’s first shot went to 78-year-old Mauricette.
“It’s an important day,”
Tine said. “We are very eager to have a new weapon at our disposal and we are very eager to rediscover our normal lives.”
Amongthepoliticianswho got shots Sunday to promote a wider acceptance of vaccinationswasBulgarianHealth Minister Kostadin Angelov.
“I can’t wait to see my 70-year-old father without fear that I could infect him,”
Angelov said.
Weeks after the U.S., Canada and Britain began inoculations with the same vaccine, the 27-nation bloc staged a coordinated rollout aimed at projecting a unified message that the shot was safe and Europe’s best chance to emerge from the pandemic.
For health care workers who have been battling the virus with only masks and shields to protect themselves, the vaccines represented an emotional relief as the virus continues to kill — nearly 1.8 million people around the world have died from COVID-19. But it was alsoapublicchanceforthem to urge Europe’s 450 million people to get the shots amid continued vaccine and virus skepticism.
“Today I’m here as a citizen, butmostofallasanurse, torepresentmycategoryand all the health workers who choose to believe in science,” said Claudia Alivernini, 29, the first person to be inoculated at the Spallanzani infectious disease hospital in Rome.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called the vaccine, which was developedinrecordtime, a“gamechanger.”
“We know that today is not the end of the pandemic, but it is the beginning of the victory,” he said.
Italian virus czar Domenico Arcuri said it was significant that Italy’s first doses were administered at Spallanzani, where a Chinese couple visiting from Wuhan tested positive in January and became Italy’s first confirmed cases.
Within weeks, northern Lombardy became the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe and a cautionary tale of what happens when even wealthy regions find themselves unprepared for a pandemic. Lombardy still accounts for around a third of the dead in Italy, which has the continent’s worst confirmed virus death toll at nearly 72,000.
“Today is a beautiful, symbolic day: All the citizens of Europe together are starting to get their vaccinations, the first ray of light afteralongnight,” Arcuritold reporters.
But he cautioned: “We all have to continue to be prudent, cautious and responsible. We still have a long road ahead, but finally we see a bit of light.”
The vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and American drugmaker Pfizer started arriving in supercold containers at EU hospitals Friday from a factory in Belgium. Each country was only getting a fraction of the doses needed — fewer than 10,000inthefirstbatchesfor some countries — with the bigger rollout expected in Januarywhenmorevaccines become available. All those getting shots Sunday have to come back for a second dose in three weeks.
In the Los Olmos nursing home in the Spanish city of Guadalajara, northeast of Madrid, 96-year-oldresident Araceli Hidalgo and a caregiverwerethefirstSpaniards to receive the vaccine.
“Let’s see if we can all behave and make this virus go away,” Hidalgo said.
Altogether, the EU’s 27 nationshaverecordedatleast 16 million coronavirus infections and more than 336,000 deaths — huge numbers that A resident of a nursing home winces while getting an injection of the COVID-19 vaccine Sunday in Cologne, Germany. The 27 countries in the European Union account for more than 16 million confirmed coronavirus infections and over 336,000 deaths. MARTIN MEISSNER/AP experts say still understate the true toll of the pandemic due to missed cases and limited testing.
Thevaccinationcampaign should ease frustrations that were building up, especially in Germany, as Britain, Canada and the United States kicked off their inoculation programs with the same vaccine weeks earlier.
In France, where many question the safety of vaccines, theFrenchgovernment has been cautious in its messaging and keen to ensure that it is not seen as forcing vaccinations on the public. France’s first vaccination at a nursing home in a poor area outside of Paris on Sunday was not broadcast on live television as it was elsewhere in Europe and no government ministers attended.
“We didn’t need to convince her. She said ‘yes, I’m ready for anything to avoid getting this disease,’” said Dr. Samir Tine, head of geriatric services for the Sevran nursing home where France’s first shot went to 78-year-old Mauricette.
“It’s an important day,”
Tine said. “We are very eager to have a new weapon at our disposal and we are very eager to rediscover our normal lives.”
Amongthepoliticianswho got shots Sunday to promote a wider acceptance of vaccinationswasBulgarianHealth Minister Kostadin Angelov.
“I can’t wait to see my 70-year-old father without fear that I could infect him,”
Angelov said.
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