is Belgium “behind” in the vaccination process?

The Interministerial Conference on Health is postponed. One day only, unless otherwise indicated. Bring the file to the restricted ministerial committee (the kern).

But to announce what? Several steps or all steps of the vaccination process?

Germany is ready, France is about to reveal its strategy.

And even better: the UK announces the first vaccinations from next week on Wednesday, which implies that the entire chain is defined and operational, at least initially for a limited audience.

So is Belgium late?

ONLY THE UK TO DECIDE

It is undoubtedly necessary here to distinguish scientific analysis from political decision.

“We are not late”, says Jean-Michel Dogne, director of the pharmacy department of UNamur, also a member of the task force meeting with this inter-ministerial commission.

“For months we have all been working on evaluating the process of each of the companies that require the production of the vaccine.”

All? The Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) and its European counterpart (EMA).

And this is also where the difference is made with the UK, which now depends only on its only national agency for the approval of a drug.

How it happens: Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, declared good for local marketing, a decision taken, according to its director, “in the most rigorous and unhurried way.”

HEAVY LOGISTICS

Beyond the official approval of a vaccine and the designation of its priority beneficiaries, it is the logistical and financial aspect that seems to lengthen the discussions in Belgium.

And there, it is well within the purview of politics. A dose of regional, a dose of collectivity, especially a large dose of federal, which should assume 80% of the costs of purchasing the equipment.

Logistics includes supply, storage, delivery. It becomes even more complicated with different storage conditions, the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which requires an average temperature of -75 degrees.

“Germany also has to deal with its Länder and various health ministers with different powers., we feel it gladly.

However, in Belgium, policy makers seem to have all the necessary data: “For logistics, indicates Jean-Michel Dogne, “The Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products has been working for months, in particular for the purchase of syringes and spaces to store vaccines”.