There are still questions about how the government's vaccine plan can be implemented.
According to Ali Mirazimi, who is an adjunct professor of clinical virology at Karolinska Institutet, a lot can go wrong.
- Vaccines are produced and shipped directly so that anything that affects production can interfere.
The transports themselves can be a problem with and even when the vaccine is to be distributed.
Everything should work in production for use, he explains.
Three approved vaccines so far
The population in Sweden over the age of 18 in November 2020 was just over 8 million (Statistics Sweden, 2020).
Assuming that everyone over the age of 18 needs two doses of vaccine and wants to be vaccinated, approximately 16 million doses are required.
To date, a total of 585,843 vaccinations have been reported to the national vaccination register.
398,092 people have received at least one dose of vaccine (Public Health Agency, 22 February 2021).
Three vaccines are so far approved in Sweden.
Pfizer / BioNTech, Astra Zeneca and Moderna.
The Swedish Public Health Agency's plan includes 9,886,000 doses included from those companies.
However, not only are their vaccine doses sufficient to vaccinate anyone over the age of 18.
Pending approval of other vaccines
If the vaccine from Curevac and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) is approved, the plan will look different, as Johnson & Johnson's vaccine will only be needed in one dose.
Richard Bergström is Sweden's vaccine coordinator and announces that it is subject to approval by Curevac and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) and that Astra Zeneca can deliver vaccines as they should.
- There are no huge margins.
If Janssen and Curevac's vaccine is not approved or severely delayed, then the vaccine plan will not work.
But the probability of their approval is high, Richard Bergström explains to SVT Vetenskap.
Richard Bergström points out that it is important to have a goal image.
- I think this vaccine plan is realistic.
But all vaccine companies must be involved for the plan to work, he concludes.