Paris (AFP)
On December 8, 2020, Margaret Keenan rolls up the sleeve of her Christmas penguin t-shirt.
To applause, the British nonagenarian receives her first dose of the anti-Covid vaccine.
Five months after this Western premiere (China had started its campaign in the fall), a billion doses were dispensed in one or two individual injections.
The dozen vaccines developed in just over a year are pulling the better-off countries out of the pandemic nightmare.
This milestone victory over the coronavirus, which has killed three million humans and brought the planet to a halt, remains to be confirmed in the face of new variants, whose degree of resistance to vaccines is precisely unknown, and to the strong immunization inequality between rich and poor which alters the very idea of collective immunity.
Since the laughing Margaret, who admitted to being "privileged" under the needle, it is by the millions that the shoulders are bare to receive the precious sesame with the hope of seeing her loved ones again, resuming her activity, going out, traveling.
Simply relive.
- Life before -
"I came here to get my old life back," Laszlo Cservak, 75, was enthusiastic about in February, while awaiting his turn in a center in Budapest.
After a few misfires, on the size of the syringes and that of the freezers to store the messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna at -70 ° C, the pricking machine has broken in and now spins at lightning speed .
Stadiums, cathedrals, schools, pharmacies, we vaccinate everywhere, at all times and at almost any time.
In Texas, Mary Donegam waits her turn in her daughter's car in a parking lot, window down: “I'm 89 and a half and I don't want to die young!” She says.
Champion in all categories, Israel celebrates its rediscovered freedom on the terraces of cafes.
In exchange for quick access to millions of doses, the country offered Pfizer medical data on the vaccine's effect on its population: since December, 80% of Israelis over 20 have received their two doses and the country now allows the mask to be taken off in public.
Result: last week, 39 deaths were recorded in Israel, 10 times less than during the deadliest week in January (407 deaths between January 25 and 31).
The United States follows closely: after having known last year the hell of the field hospitals in Central Park, they opened Monday the vaccination "to all" the ages.
And half of Americans have already received at least one injection.
Performance equaled, at its scale, by the United Kingdom with half of the British (32 million) "stung" at least once.
In comparison, in the first quarter of 2021, the European Union had received 107 million doses, all vaccines combined, for a population of 446 million inhabitants.
A delay put into perspective by the boss of the European Commission, Ursula Van der Leyen, who maintains her objective: "to vaccinate 70% of European adults by summer".
- Setbacks and poor performances -
The campaign plans of EU leaders have been thwarted, it is true, by the poor performance of the European vaccine AstraZeneca: after production difficulties, which in February led Brussels to the verge of nervous breakdown, rare cases of thrombosis, some fatalities, spotted in early March have affected the confidence of patients and authorities.
Several countries have temporarily suspended the use of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine on which many African countries also relied, then restricted its use to certain age groups.
Denmark has given it up altogether.
Then the American vaccine from Johnson & Johnson suffered the same setbacks with the appearance of blood clots in some patients.
Ultra-limited cases, but which again led to pressing "pause".
Finally, the European Medicines Agency ruled, again, that the benefits outweighed the risks.
But as the US economy picks up with fanfare, these injection delays accumulated by the EU, with rebounding lockdowns, could cost the Twenty-Seven € 123 billion, according to credit insurer Euler- Hermes.
However, despite some initial procrastination fueled by conspiracy theories - the anti-Covid vaccine accused of inoculating 5G ... - vaccine fever has indeed taken hold of the populations, which, however, remain very unevenly served depending on the continent.
Thus, Yemen and Libya, two countries at war, have just received their first vaccines.
And, according to the Africa director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr John Nkengasong, the continent is "at a stalemate" today.
- Vaccine diplomacy -
The 55 states of the African Union (AU) received 35 million doses, for an estimated population of 1.2 billion.
Result, insists the head of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in rich countries, one in four people is vaccinated, against one in 500 in a poor country.
This vaccine inequality is likely to be costly.
Despite the Covax program, a public-private partnership managed by the WHO which must guarantee equal access to vaccines, funding difficulties limited deliveries to around 38 million doses to 113 countries as of April 15.
In solidarity with the most disadvantaged, the young climate activist Greta Thunberg announced that she refused to be vaccinated and offered 100,000 euros to Covax.
China and Russia are active on their side on the front of "vaccine diplomacy", a new version of "soft power" with syringes.
Beijing, on the front line, is increasing its announcements of donations, making Serbia the champion of anti-Covid vaccination in Europe!
But no one is betting on "collective immunity" by the end of the year.
Because while Californians find - "tearfully", confides Lucia, forty-something from Los Angeles - amusement parks, in India crematoriums are struggling to absorb the 2,000 daily deaths and in Brazil, we bury day and night in the largest cemetery in Sao Paulo.
© 2021 AFP