Requiem for a vaccine
While the media announce yet another wave that never arrives, the laboratories are trying at all costs to sell their latest COVID products. In vain: the pandemic no longer draws the crowds…
Pfizer and BioNtech struggle to sell their Covid products
The French daily “Les Echos” writes in its edition of 16 October[1]:
“Covid products seek buyers. Pfizer will have to find some, across the Atlantic, to sell off the 7.9 million Paxlovid treatments that the US federal State no longer wants.”
[…]
« Pfizer is sharply revising its profit downwards this year and is launching cost cuts. Its partner BioNTech, for its part, is taking a 900-million-euro hit linked to insufficient demand for the Comirnaty vaccine this year. »
Covid-19: just over 755,000 vaccine doses destroyed in Luxembourg
Moreover, billions of doses of expired vaccines in the EU continue to end up in white bags, as the Luxembourg newspaper “Le Quotidien” also reports in its article of 18 October:
“...Sven Clement, the Minister of Health indicated that Luxembourg had destroyed 755,240 doses of anti-Covid vaccine purchased by the Grand Duchy (as of 18 October 2023). She also specified that nearly 314,000 doses expire at the end of November.”
[…]
“The total cost of this destruction is estimated at ‘16 8943 015 euros’, the minister reveals…”[2]
The most obvious cause of this fiasco seems to be a steep fall in the number of people taking up covid 19 vaccination.
Covid, even doctors are deserting the campaign: Only 426 vaccinated out of 37 thousand
Even more striking, the phenomenon is found among the pharmaceutical industries’ target public: people aged 65, pregnant women, healthcare staff and doctors. Indeed, we read in “La Repubblica” of 23 October[3]:
“In the first ten days of administration, fewer than 1% of health workers in Rome and Lazio turned up. The flu vaccine is doing better.”
In the USA, following a study conducted in April 2023, the CDC notes, in a report of 29 September, an increase in vaccine hesitancy among pregnant women. It records a 20% to 30% drop in the vaccination of pregnant women against COVID, influenza, whooping cough and tetanus between 2020 and 2022[4].
Experts believe that this drop is due to a number of factors, including “misinformation” about vaccines, concerns about vaccine safety and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Covid-19: the very sluggish start of the new vaccination campaign
Finally, in France, the vaccination rate among older people keeps falling. Only 1.8% of older people have been vaccinated, reports l’Express in its article of 19 October[5]:
“While the annual flu vaccination campaign begins this Tuesday 17 October, very few French people have gone to get vaccinated again against the Covid-19 virus.”
[…]
“barely 1.8% of people over 65 had received their injection” […] ‘A figure well below the health authorities’ expectations…” […] “while unvaccinated healthcare workers were reinstated last spring, only 0.5% of the medical staff working in Ehpad nursing homes had reportedly taken the step. That is fewer than doctors in private practice, whose vaccination coverage reaches 1%, according to the first figures from Santé publique France.”
BAM!
The standfirst and illustration are by BAM!
The articles are translated from English and Italian by BAM!
[1] Pfizer et BioNtech peinent à écouler leurs produits Covid | Les Echos
[2] Covid‑19 : un peu plus de 755 000 doses de vaccin détruites au Luxembourg
[3] Covid, anche i medici disertano la campagna: « Soltanto 426 vaccinati su 37 mila » - la Repubblica
[4] Influenza, Tdap, and COVID‑19 Vaccination Coverage and Hesitancy Among Pregnant Women — United States, April 2023 | MMWR
[5] Covid‑19 : les débuts très poussifs de la nouvelle campagne de vaccination
