Here’s the whole thing article:
Interest in vaccination in both countries has waned, leaving huge stocks of drugs that employees must use quickly before their expiration date. The alternative is to destroy them, which would be a sin given the shortages in poorer African countries.
With the accumulation of reserve doses, vaccines are sold or donated to other countries, governments want deliveries to be delayed, and the hotel industry in Bulgaria insists that foreign visitors be vaccinated free of charge. Demand in Romania has dropped to such an extent that members of the national rugby team in Argentina are to be vaccinated before a match in Bucharest.
The hesitation in both countries stems from years of distrust of the authorities, as well as skepticism about some vaccines, especially following concerns about the safety of AstraZeneca Plc. In Romania, only 24% of the population is fully vaccinated, and the figure in Bulgaria is half that.
The expiration date of just over 35,000 doses of AstraZeneca in Romania expired on Wednesday.
Bulgaria has about 20,000 doses with an expiration date by the end of July, although it hopes to use many of them as second doses before that.
But both sides want to delay vaccine supplies to avoid oversupply.
Low levels of vaccination pose a risk to the EU’s efforts to overcome the pandemic. The bloc is already battling the threat of the Delta variant of the virus, while public health restrictions are being relaxed and people are taking summer vacations.
“Sales or donations will not affect the availability of the vaccine for our citizens,” Andrei Baciu, Romania’s deputy health minister, said in a telephone interview.
With declining demand in Bulgaria, the government plans to donate 150,000 doses, mostly of Astra Zeneca, to neighboring Balkan countries.
“Since Bulgaria and all of us have paid these doses with our taxes, we propose that they be used to stimulate vaccination tourism, instead of being thrown in the bin,” said Polina Karastoyanova, managing director of the National Tourism Council, last week.
In Romania, the government is shifting its focus from urban to rural areas in an attempt to save its “shaky” vaccination campaign. Rely on local doctors who have close ties with communities and convince them of the benefits of vaccination.
“I am still skeptical about vaccines because I have doubts about their safety and long-term side effects,” said Cristina Florescu, 37, of the northeastern city of Suceava. “I already have side effects from Covid and I don’t want to expose my body to other substances.”
The government does not seem to have high hopes that its initiatives will bring rapid success. This week, Romania agreed to sell almost 1.2 million of its doses from Pfizer. of Denmark.
“We receive daily requests,” said Prime Minister Florin Chitu. “We sell to Denmark and will continue to sell to more countries.”
Translation and editing: Mira Ereeva
–
