• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Science
  • World
  • Lifestyle
  • Tech
Unequal Access to Monkeypox Shots Gives Europe Pandemic Flashbacks

Unequal Access to Monkeypox Shots Gives Europe Pandemic Flashbacks

August 17, 2022
Gisele Bündchen Goes Braless In Sheer Dress As She Returns To Modeling After Tom Brady Divorce

Gisele Bündchen Focuses More On Herself After Tom Brady Divorce: ‘Feels Renewed And Empowered’

February 9, 2023
Kelce Brothers Will Share the N.F.L.’s Biggest Stage

Kelce Brothers Will Share the N.F.L.’s Biggest Stage

February 9, 2023
GREG GUTFELD: There’s less truth in Biden’s speech than in a brochure for penile enlargement

GREG GUTFELD: There’s less truth in Biden’s speech than in a brochure for penile enlargement

February 9, 2023
Hunter Biden’s lawyer demands laptop repairman, Rudy Giuliani, others preserve evidence for lawsuits

Hunter Biden’s lawyer demands laptop repairman, Rudy Giuliani, others preserve evidence for lawsuits

February 9, 2023
2023 Super Bowl Prediction: Our Pick Against the Spread

2023 Super Bowl Prediction: Our Pick Against the Spread

February 9, 2023
Saunas Are Filling Up, but Are They Actually Good for You?

Saunas Are Filling Up, but Are They Actually Good for You?

February 9, 2023
Can Gustavo Dudamel’s Star Power Boost the Philharmonic?

Can Gustavo Dudamel’s Star Power Boost the Philharmonic?

February 9, 2023
In Syria, a Hospital ‘Filled With Tragedy’

In Syria, a Hospital ‘Filled With Tragedy’

February 9, 2023
North Korea displays enough ICBMs to overwhelm U.S. defense system against them

North Korea displays enough ICBMs to overwhelm U.S. defense system against them

February 9, 2023
Reporter Arrested While Covering News Conference in Ohio

Reporter Arrested While Covering News Conference in Ohio

February 9, 2023
‘The Last Of Us’ Actress Melanie Lynskey Zings Critic Of Her Body Type In The Post-Apocalypse

‘The Last Of Us’ Actress Melanie Lynskey Zings Critic Of Her Body Type In The Post-Apocalypse

February 9, 2023
Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All Of Those Voices’ Documentary Will Include Clips From One Direction Era

Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All Of Those Voices’ Documentary Will Include Clips From One Direction Era

February 9, 2023
DNYUZ
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Television
    • Theater
    • Gaming
    • Sports
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
No Result
View All Result
DNYUZ
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Unequal Access to Monkeypox Shots Gives Europe Pandemic Flashbacks

August 17, 2022
in News
Unequal Access to Monkeypox Shots Gives Europe Pandemic Flashbacks
535
SHARES
1.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BRUSSELS — Flavio Stupino, a bank worker in Milan, had taken the same train many times before — for a vacation, to visit a friend or a lover on the French Côte d’Azur. This time, though, he was crossing the border with a different aim: to get a monkeypox vaccine.

For nearly two months, he had anxiously scrutinized his skin for any sign of infection. He had stopped visiting gay clubs and saunas, and refrained from casual sexual encounters. Then Mr. Stupino heard that France was offering vaccinations, while Italy still didn’t.

“I had to run for cover,” he said.

In Europe, the global monkeypox hot spot, the latest outbreak has disturbing echoes of the last one, when stocks of protective gear, coronavirus tests and Covid-19 vaccine were, at first, inadequate, hampered by production bottlenecks, and distributed at uneven speeds.

Once again, some nations are much better equipped than others. And despite a strengthened mechanism for common purchases, they are now competing against one another and against the European Union for limited vaccine supplies, and “vaccine tourism” — crossing borders in search of shots — has returned.

Until the delivery last week of about 7,000 doses supplied by Brussels, Spain, the epicenter of the European monkeypox outbreak, had access to only about 5,000, leaving many vulnerable people still waiting. France, with fewer than half as many confirmed cases, had already vaccinated 27,000 people.

The European Union set out to prevent a repeat of the Covid debacle, and last year created a new health emergency agency that was supposed to act decisively and put all 27 member countries on an equal footing. But experts say the new agency does not have the full powers envisioned for it, in part because individual countries have been unwilling to cede authority in the politically sensitive area of public health.

In 2020, while Covid vaccines were still in development, the pandemic was already an enormous health and economic crisis, and it was clear that Europe would need billions of doses. Yet the European Commission, the E.U. executive branch, was slower than United States or Britain to buy and distribute vaccines, drawing bitter criticism.

When monkeypox first began to spread in Europe in May, the situation was, in many ways, very different: There was no prospect of a wave of fatalities, the disease was not widespread, the containment strategy called for inoculating only certain at-risk people, and vaccines already existed.

Determined not to repeat Covid missteps, the new European agency ordered 110,000 vaccine doses with E.U. funds in early June. At that point, only 299 cases had been reported in the European Union, officials said, and the commission said in a statement that the purchase was sufficient “to cover the most immediate, short-term needs of member states.”

It wasn’t. National health authorities had underestimated how fast the virus would spread, particularly among men who have sex with men. More than 30,000 people have been infected worldwide, and millions are considered at risk.

In addition, only one vaccine is approved in Europe for monkeypox prevention, manufactured by one fairly small pharmaceutical company, Bavarian Nordic, which faces production limitations and has competing orders. About 58,000 doses of the initial E.U. order two months ago have so far been delivered, with the rest expected by the end of August.

Vaccines for smallpox, once a leading killer, are also effective against monkeypox, and inoculation was near universal until the 1970s. But routine vaccination stopped when smallpox was eradicated, and older types of vaccine carry some risks that regulators consider acceptable only when trying to prevent a disease as deadly as smallpox.

European regulators have only approved Bavarian Nordic’s shot — known as Imvanex in Europe, Imvamune in Canada and Jynneos in the United States — as safe enough for monkeypox prevention; two doses are required to be fully vaccinated. That “third generation” vaccine is also approved in the United States, where regulators also recently gave permission to use a second-generation smallpox shot, ACAM2000, for monkeypox.

Individual countries and the World Health Organization have kept stores of smallpox vaccines in case the disease ever returns, but they vary enormously. Some national stockpiles are large enough to vaccinate every resident, while others are far short of that.

Some countries, like the Netherlands, France and the United States, had significant supplies of Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine in their stores before monkeypox struck. Others, like Italy and Spain, did not.

Within weeks of the initial E.U. order, it became clear that it wasn’t enough, and Brussels increased its purchase to 160,000 doses, the maximum under its emergency procedure — which was still inadequate. As cases mounted, the new European agency entered negotiations — still underway — for a new contract, but by then it was competing with many countries, including E.U. members, trying to buy on their own.

The vaccine produced by Bavarian Nordic “is the only one available on the market, is produced by only one company, with limited manufacturing capacity and pre-existing contractual obligations,” the commission said in a statement.

“This is an illustration of the problem with health policy at the E.U. level,” said Elizabeth Kuiper, associate director of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre.

“In a crisis, a lot of promises are made,” she added, but then countries reverted to their tendency to look out for themselves, rather than share power and resources.

Spain has reported more than 5,000 monkeypox cases, by far the most in Europe, and has depended almost entirely on the E.U. mechanism for vaccines, receiving about 15,000 doses so far.

Nahum Cabrera, the H.I.V. coordinator for Spain’s federation of L.G.B.T. associations, said that available vaccination spots were always filled in a matter of minutes, and the vast majority of the most vulnerable communities had been left out.

“We are relying on Europe and this worries us,” he said. “Because Europe is going very slowly.”

The German government ordered 240,000 doses directly from Bavarian Nordic — more than the European Commission has for the continent — of which 40,000 have been delivered. In addition, it has received 5,300 through the commission. Belgium ordered 30,000 doses on its own, but so far has received only 3,040 doses from the E.U. order.

The French Health Ministry said it had both dipped into its vaccine stockpile and made a direct order from Bavarian Nordic, which it declined to describe in detail. Dr. Giovanni Rezza, who is in charge of prevention at Italy’s Health Ministry, said his country had been in talks with the company, but with no conclusion so far.

Jean-Michel Dogné, a professor at the University of Namur in Belgium and adviser to the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization, said that direct deals might be useful for countries that were hit hardest, but that they carried risks.

“There is no merit in having competition in between member states at the E.U. level,” he said. “The first aim is really to work together to avoid this.”

Anniek de Ruijter, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Amsterdam, said that using the E.U. budget to purchase vaccines and distribute them across the bloc was a groundbreaking move.

“It’s a big step,” she said. “For the longest time, there was no solidarity in the area of health in the E.U.”

But that solidarity was partial and fragile, she added, with national authorities resistant to relinquishing control.

“Health is such a sensitive issue,” she said. “It’s something that can win you elections.”

With limited doses in hand, Belgium has restricted vaccination to those identified as most vulnerable, leaving many gay men unable to get the shot yet. Community organizations have stepped into the vacuum, sharing guidance and contacts, and even organizing car shares to France, where shots are available.

Camilo Serrano, a 30-year-old Colombian who works as a French teacher in Brussels, initially tried to get the vaccine in Belgium, but was told that he was not eligible. Then he learned that a clinic in Lille, a French city just across the border, was hosting an open day for vaccinations without an appointment. Mr. Serrano rushed to book a train ticket.

He said he feared the pain caused by the disease. “But there is also the stigma,” he added. “If you get it, how do you explain it to your boss? It does not necessarily mean that you are having sex with everyone.”

One Saturday this month, over 400 Belgian residents got vaccinations in the Lille clinic according to Exaequo, a Belgian L.G.B.T. rights group that helped organize car shares to France.

After getting inoculated, Mr. Serrano described feeling relief — and then guilt. The situation was unfair, he said, for people who couldn’t go that day, like his boyfriend, or for those who could not afford the trip.

“It shouldn’t be this way,” he said. “We felt abandoned in Belgium.”

The post Unequal Access to Monkeypox Shots Gives Europe Pandemic Flashbacks appeared first on New York Times.

Share214Tweet134Share

Trending Posts

Nathan Chasing Horse filmed sex assault of child, groomed girls to replace wives: prosecutor

Nathan Chasing Horse filmed sex assault of child, groomed girls to replace wives: prosecutor

February 9, 2023
North Korea shows off possible new ICBM at huge military parade

North Korea shows off possible new ICBM at huge military parade

February 9, 2023
Who Died In The ‘A Million Little Things’ Season 5 Premiere?

Who Died In The ‘A Million Little Things’ Season 5 Premiere?

February 9, 2023
How Rihanna’s Super Bowl 2023 Performance Relates To Astrology

How Rihanna’s Super Bowl 2023 Performance Relates To Astrology

February 9, 2023
SaaS security provider raises $50M to boost application security  

SaaS security provider raises $50M to boost application security  

February 9, 2023

Copyright © 2023.

Site Navigation

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • U.S.
    • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Science
  • Entertainment
    • Culture
    • Gaming
    • Music
    • Movie
    • Sports
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Tech
    • Apps
    • Autos
    • Gear
    • Mobile
    • Startup
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel

Copyright © 2023.

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT