The European Union says not all COVID vaccines are created equal

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London (AFP) – After Dr Ifene Nsofor and his wife received two doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in Nigeria, they assumed they would be free to travel this summer to a European destination of their choosing. They were wrong.

The couple – and millions of other people who have been vaccinated through efforts supported by the United Nations – could find themselves barred from entering many European and other countries because those countries do not recognize the Indian-made version of the travel vaccine.

Although the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Europe has been licensed by the drug regulatory agency on the continent, the shot itself manufactured in India has not been given the go-ahead.

European Union regulators said AstraZeneca had not completed the paperwork needed for the Indian plant, including details of production practices and quality control standards.

But some experts describe the EU’s move as discriminatory and unscientific, noting that the World Health Organization inspected and approved the plant. Health officials say the situation will not only complicate travel and frustrate fragile economies, but also undermine confidence in vaccines by appearing to label some shots as substandard.

With vaccination coverage on the rise across Europe and other wealthy nations, authorities keen to salvage the summer tourism season are increasingly easing restrictions at the coronavirus borders.

Earlier this month, the European Union introduced its digital COVID-19 certification, which allows EU residents to move freely in the 27-country bloc as long as they have been vaccinated with one of four EMA-authorized shots, a new negative test, or You have evidence that they have recently recovered from the virus.

While the US and Britain remain largely closed to outside visitors, EU certification is seen as a potential model for travel in the era of COVID-19 and a way to boost economies.

Vaccines officially approved by the European Union also include those made by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. It does not include the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India or many other vaccines used in developing countries, including those manufactured in China and Russia.

Individual EU countries are free to apply their own rules for travelers from within and outside the bloc, and their rules vary widely, creating further confusion for tourists. Several EU countries, including Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, allow people to enter if they have vaccines not approved by the EU; Many other countries, including France and Italy, do not.

For Nsophore, the realization that it could be prevented was a “rude awakening.” After a hard year working during the pandemic in Abuja, Nsofor and his wife were looking forward to a European vacation with their two young daughters, perhaps admiring the Eiffel Tower in Paris or taking a tour of Salzburg in Austria.

Nsofor noted that the Indian-made vaccine he obtained was licensed by the World Health Organization for emergency use and was made available through COVAX, the UN-backed program to provide vaccines in poor regions of the world. The WHO approval included a visit to the Serum Institute of India factory to ensure that it had good manufacturing practices and that quality control standards were met.

“We are grateful to the European Union for funding COVAX, but now they mainly discriminate against the vaccine they actively funded and promoted,” said Nsofor. “This will give scope to all kinds of conspiracy theories that the vaccines we get in Africa are not as good as the vaccines they have for themselves in the West.”

Ivo Flaive, a professor at Britain’s University of Warwick who advises government on behavioral sciences during COVID-19, agreed that Western countries’ refusal to recognize vaccines used in poor countries could lead to increased mistrust.

“People who were already skeptical about vaccines will become even more skeptical,” said Flaive. “They may also lose faith in public health messages from governments and be less willing to comply with COVID rules.”

Dr Mesfin Teklu Tesema, IRC’s director of health, said countries that have refused to recognize vaccines obtained by the World Health Organization are acting against scientific evidence.

Vaccines that meet the WHO threshold must be accepted. Otherwise it seems that there is an elemental element here.

The World Health Organization has urged countries to recognize all the vaccines they have allowed, including two Chinese-made. Countries that refuse to do so “undermine confidence in life-saving vaccines that have already been shown to be safe and effective, affecting vaccine uptake and potentially putting billions of people at risk,” the United Nations World Health Organization said in a statement this month.

In June, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawala, tweeted that he was concerned about vaccinated Indians facing problems traveling to the EU, and said he was raising the issue at the highest levels with regulators and countries.

Stephan de Kersmacker, a spokesman for the European Union’s executive arm, said last week that regulators were obligated to check the production process at the Indian plant.

“We are not trying to raise any doubts about this vaccine,” he said.

AstraZeneca said it recently submitted the paperwork for the Indian manufacturer to the European Union’s Medicines Regulatory Agency. She did not say why she did not do so earlier, before the agency made its original decision in January.

Public health experts have warned that countries that refuse to recognize WHO-backed vaccines are complicating global efforts to safely resume travel.

“You can’t just isolate countries from the rest of the world indefinitely,” said Dr. Raghib Ali of the University of Cambridge. “Excluding some people from certain countries because of the vaccine they received is completely inconsistent because we know that these approved vaccines are very protective.”

Nsofor said he and his wife are still deciding where to spend their summer vacation and are leaning toward Singapore or East Africa.

“I didn’t realize there were so many layers to inoculation of injustice,” he said.

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Jamie Keeten in Geneva, Angela Charlton in Paris and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

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