The European continent oscillates between hope and fear, which is divided between scenes of shipment and distribution of the vaccine on the one hand, and the numbers of infections and deaths from the Corona virus, which have reached record levels on the other hand, in a country such as Germany, in conjunction with the Christmas holidays and what that means for Europeans in terms of celebrations and family gatherings, which warns An unprecedented rise in the number of injuries.
And reluctantly, European governments agreed to ease the closure measures during the Christmas period, because they assessed that citizens would not abide by the stone and that there would be more cases of violations of the rules, which could lead to exhaustion even among the security men.
And like those walking over a minefield, European governments are trying to balance between allowing people to have limited celebrations on birthdays, and the lockdown measures imposed by the rapid spread of the virus, and its out of control, as is happening in Germany.
The British Prime Minister is under pressure to tighten the closure during the Christmas period (Al-Jazeera)
Between the closures and the holidays
, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted a lot of pressure to tighten the closure procedures during the Christmas period between the 23rd and 27th of this month, and announced that there would be no major change in the decision to reduce the stone during this period, but he called on citizens to think about Older adults and avoid large gatherings as much as possible.
Johnson's decision comes after strongly worded warnings issued by both the British Medical Journal and the Journal of Health Services that allowing people to celebrate and gather during birthdays will lead to a sharp rise in the number of deaths due to the Corona virus.
The concerns of the medical staff focus on the elderly, who are most vulnerable to the virus, and according to the projections of a study by the University of Bristol, allowing gatherings during Christmas may result in a third wave of Corona, with the infection index rising to between 1.9 and 2.4.
As for Germany, which has the strongest health infrastructure in Europe, it has entered into a comprehensive lockdown, which is the largest in the country's history, after it reached the ceiling of 1,000 deaths, a number that was not recorded even at the height of the first wave of the epidemic, and this closure is expected to continue until the middle of next month.
The outbreak of the epidemic is almost causing a crisis between Belgium and the Netherlands, as the latter is entering its fifth week of closure, which will continue even during the Christmas period, prompting many Dutch people to go to Belgium for shopping, which angered the Belgian authorities, who warned through the words of its prime minister of the possibility Close the borders between the two countries until the end of Christmas.
Speed up vaccination
The European Medicines Authority bowed to the increasing pressure from many EU countries to expedite its meeting to grant a license for the "Pfizer-Biontech" vaccine. It decided to present this decisive meeting from December 29 to the 21 of the same month, and the vaccination process will immediately start in all European countries At the same time, as announced by the European Commission, which pressed for speeding up the process, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter that "every day that passes is an important day."
The Union will be the last to join in the West the list of countries licensed for this vaccine, after the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and the latter announced that it had vaccinated 138,000 people during the first week of the vaccination process, in addition to expanding the vaccination sites to reach 1000 medical centers, and the goal is to vaccinate 25 million British adults 50 years and over within the next three months.
Attention is drawn to the "Oxford" vaccine, which is less expensive than "Pfizer" and is easier to store and transport. According to sources who spoke to Al Jazeera Net, it is expected that the vaccine will obtain a license from the British authorities within days, and that the vaccination process will begin before the end of the year, and the British government owns A contract with the vaccine manufacturer to obtain 100 million doses.
New mutation
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock surprised everyone when he announced a new mutation of the Corona virus, spreading rapidly, in southeast England.
According to Dr. Mays Issa, a specialist in epidemiology at the Royal University in London, this mutation carries “N501Y” and it is in the region of the spinal protein, specifically the receptor binding domain, or the part that binds to the receptor on human cells, which is the section that was used. In designing vaccines.
In her interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Dr.Mays confirms that so far there is no evidence that the virus is more dangerous, that is, it causes severe symptoms in Corona patients, and there is no current evidence that it affects the effectiveness of developed vaccines.
The doctor of epidemiology indicated that scientists currently in the laboratories of the British Public Health Authority will test this new form on human cells in the laboratory to see if the new form of the virus has become more transmissible.
However, Dr. Mays is reassured that the rate of mutations that occur to the virus that causes Corona remains less compared to other viruses such as influenza.