The same day that more than a million vaccines against COVID-19 arrived in Spain, the country comfortably exceeded one of the psychological lines of the vaccination campaign: 10% of the population has already been vaccinated with at least one dose. That is, 4,967,230 are partially immunized and 2,604,209 have already received the full regimen.
The figure (either in absolute or relative terms) is low. Above all, if we consider that the fourth wave may be knocking on doors, but it marks a point of reference: we have been saying for months that everything depends on spring and, indeed, the moment when the vaccination campaign has to change radically is now. Will you be able to do it?
One of every ten
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We already know that the vaccination campaign in Spain started accidentally for various reasons: the complicated logistics of a first phase focused on elderly people in nursing homes and large dependents in addition to first-line health, the initial problems of distribution or Pfizer delays and vaccine shortages.
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By late February and early March, the situation had stabilized and vaccination began to acquire cruising speed exceeding 110,000 doses administered per day. However, it was not enough. If we wanted to reach summer with 70% of the population vaccinated, we need much more and the main ‘bottleneck’ is the shortage of vaccines.
Something that is gradually being solved. As we said, this week 672,750 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech and 393,600 of Moderna have been received. In other words, triple the vaccines we received during the first weeks are already arriving. But, on paper, it’s just the beginning. According to the forecasts that the ministry manages, only in April we have to receive more vaccines than we have received all these months. The arrival of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on April 19 will round out the numbers.
In this way, the arrival of 10% of vaccinated with a single dose is excellent news. But not as good as we would like. As case spikes become a reality and the fourth wave threatens to saturate hospitals again, there are a good number of people at risk (such as those over 65 but under 80) still waiting to be vaccinated.
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In other words, we must not fall into the trap that the aggregate numbers make invisible the problems that we still have to address. The optimism generated by vaccines is justified, but it makes no sense to forget that, although in a few months we will be able to touch immunity with the “flame of the fingers”, it will not be easy and it is important to be prepared.
Image | Hospital Clinic
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