Berlin (AFP)
Germany was preparing on Monday to strengthen its restrictions, including on the table possible curfews, in the midst of the resurgence of the pandemic, when the AstraZeneca laboratory defended the effectiveness and safety of its vaccine.
The use of this vaccine is crucial at a time when the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating, caused in particular in Europe by the British variant.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and German regional leaders began long discussions on Monday on tightening anti-Covid restrictions, considering possible curfews already contested.
Like the Social Democratic Party, a member of the ruling coalition, the daily Bild, the most widely read in Germany, is against such a measure, which it believes may affect "40 million people".
The partial confinement in place in Germany since the end of 2020 and scheduled until March 28, could be extended at least until April 18.
These measures, which are likely to arouse the discontent of the population, want to contain the contaminations, which increased by 14% in the world last week, while waiting for the vaccination campaigns to produce collective immunity.
Suspended in several countries, for fear that it will cause blood clots, sometimes fatal, the AstraZeneca vaccine comes out of phase III clinical trials carried out in the United States: it has been shown to be 79% effective in preventing Covid -19 symptomatic in the general population and 100% to prevent severe forms of the disease and hospitalization, the Swedish-British laboratory said Monday.
It is 80% effective in the elderly and does not increase the risk of blood clots, according to the laboratory, while several countries have given up on prescribing it for the elderly due to a lack of data on the elderly.
This vaccine is perceived as more dangerous than safe in Germany, France, Spain and Italy, underlines the YouGov institute.
However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) deemed it "safe and effective" and the use of the vaccine has resumed in several countries.
AstraZeneca's woes give hope to rivals: German laboratory CureVac, which is developing a messenger RNA vaccine, continues clinical trials to include new variants of the virus, with a target of marketing in the second quarter 2021.
In this global vaccine race, Russian President Vladimir Putin considered "strange" the statements of European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who said that Europe "does not need" the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, yet deemed effective by the The Lancet medical journal and under review by the EMA.
"We wonder about the interests defended by these people, those of pharmaceutical companies or those of European citizens?" Said the Russian president, promising to be vaccinated on Tuesday.
And Russia is stepping up the pace to produce its vaccine: the Russian Sovereign Fund (RDIF) has announced an agreement with the Indian pharmaceutical group Virchow Biotech to produce 200 million doses of Sputnik V in India. Two other contracts have just been signed with Indian firms for 400 million doses.
- "Counter productive" -
In Europe, the AstraZeneca vaccine supply is causing tensions between the EU and the UK.
The European Commission threatened on Saturday to block exports of the vaccine if the EU, which has received less than 10% of the doses planned for the year, does not first receive the promised supplies.
But the bloc is not united as Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin ruled on Monday that it would be a "very retrograde measure" and that Belgium and the Netherlands, which host the AstraZeneca factories, are reluctant.
The British Defense Minister ruled that this would be "counterproductive" for "a trade bloc which prides itself on (respecting) the law".
With vaccination, Europeans could achieve collective immunity in July, according to Thierry Breton.
But even when the vaccines are there, it remains to administer them: in Lombardy, one of the richest regions of Italy, particularly affected by the epidemic, the vaccination campaign turns into a "disaster" because of a reservation system defective.
A mayor had to borrow a minibus this weekend to pick up from their homes the elderly who had not received their summons.
- Cold shower -
Lassitude pushes part of the population to neglect barrier gestures.
Some 6,500 people without masks gathered on Sunday without permission to celebrate carnival in Marseille, in the south of France.
And thousands of people expressed their fed up with health restrictions on Saturday during protests in Austria, Bulgaria, Britain, Switzerland or Germany.
Elsewhere in the world, vaccinations are also stepping up in the hope of stemming the epidemic which has already killed more than 2.7 million.
Among them, the Congolese opponent Guy-Brice Parfait Kolélas, main rival of outgoing Denis Sassou Nguesso in the presidential election in Congo-Brazzaville, who died in France.
In Brazil, the government on Sunday lifted the obligation for local authorities to reserve stocks of vaccines for the 2nd injection, in order to speed up vaccination.
burs-cac / sg
© 2021 AFP