TWO PART SERIES: (1) SPAIN AND THE COVID-19 VACCINES!
The COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy in Spain is based on the European Commission’s Communication on the preparation of COVID-19 vaccination strategies and vaccine deployment, as well as on the recommendations of Spain’s COVID-19 Vaccination Technical Working Group and the Vaccine Committee. Spain’s vaccination strategy will be coordinated by the Inter-territorial Council of the National Health System (CISNS).
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COVID-19 VACCINATION STRATEGY IN SPAIN
KEY POINTS*
The main objective of the COVID-19 vaccination strategy in Spain is to
reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by this disease
through vaccination against COVID19, in a context
of progressive availability. The vaccines
will be administered free of charge
through the NHS.
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1 Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing enormous human and economic costs in Spain and the world. Having an effective and safe vaccine available in the short term, which can be used for the population at large, will help to reduce the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths by COVID-19 and will help us to gradually return to normal.
The development of such a vaccine, its acquisition and administration is an unprecedented challenge to the world. For this reason, the European Commission presented a strategy to speed up the development, manufacture and deployment of vaccines against COVID-191. The EU vaccine strategy aims to ensure the availability of quality, safe and effective vaccines in the European Union (EU) as well as an equal, rapid and equitable access to the available doses by all Member States and their citizens. . .
The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Healthcare Products (AEMPS) represents Spain in the body that makes decisions about every advance purchase process. This body monitors the development of vaccines and ensures transparency and good governance in the process of purchase and distribution. Within this framework, advance purchase agreements for vaccines have already been signed with five pharmaceutical
companies: AstraZeneca/Oxford, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, Pfizer/BioNTech and Curevac. Negotiations continue with Moderna/Lonza and Novavax. This is a broad portfolio of vaccines that will ensure that, if the authorization is granted, Europe and Spain will gradually have the necessary doses, at the same time, and for the entire population, so as to face this unprecedented situation. . .
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on her Twitter account, 27 November 2020: “Today I discussed vaccines and vaccination with Sebastian Kurz (Austrian chancellor). (The EU) has one of the broadest portfolios in the world. Only safe and effective vaccines will be approved.”
On October 15, 2020, the European Commission published a Communication on the preparation of COVID-19 vaccination strategies and vaccine deployment which identifies key elements to be considered within national vaccination strategies.
This European Commission document and the recommendations of other international bodies have been taken into account for drawing up of the Vaccination Strategy for Spain . The main objective of the vaccination strategy is to reduce COVID-19 morbidity and mortality by vaccinating the population at large. Bearing in mind that the availability of vaccines will be progressive, it is necessary to establish the main lines that this vaccination strategy must follow, as well as the prioritization of different population groups.
The COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy in Spain has been devised with the information available at this moment and aims to be a live, agile and flexible document, which will be updated as knowledge increases on the results of the clinical trials being carried out with candidate vaccines, on the information related to the logistics, storage and administration requirements of the vaccines close to authorization, and on details
about the immunity generated after the disease.
This is a country-wide strategy, which is driven by an ethical framework based on equity, with a solid technical base which will be coordinated on the basis of the common European framework, and it is born with the conviction that better acceptability results can be achieved if the vaccine is voluntary.
Calendar 2020 for vaccination against different ailments carried out by Spain’s National Health System
It should be noted that Spain has a great deal of experience in logistics, distribution and vaccination, both in systematic vaccination and in specific campaigns. Indeed, in the current flu vaccination campaign, in the context of a pandemic, vaccination levels have significantly increased in all territories.
At the same time, lessons learned from the past 2009 influenza pandemic showed the importance of having an international regulatory framework that would strengthen global surveillance and response capacity, the inclusion of vaccines and antivirals in preparedness and response plans, or the development of stronger information systems. This experience ensures that the COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy can be successfully implemented.
The current document describes the main lines for establishing a COVID-19 Vaccination
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2 Objectives of the strategy
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There are four operational objectives [for Spain]:
1. To establish an order of priority of the population groups to be vaccinated, taking into account scientific, ethical, legal and economic criteria, in a context of progressive availability of vaccine doses. It is necessary to prioritize the protection of the most vulnerable groups and those for which our legal system has assumed a specific and reinforced duty of protection.
2. To arrange the fundamental aspects related to logistics, distribution and administration of the vaccines that will be available for Spain in the coming months.
Residents and healthcare workers in nursing homes, and people with disabilities will be top priority for vaccination
3. To establish the priority lines for the monitoring and evaluation of the vaccination, including the coverage, safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, as well as their impact on the epidemiology of COVID-19, which will allow the strategy to be assessed and adjusted in order to achieve the maximum benefit for the population.
4. To arrange the key aspects for the development of a communication strategy aimed at health personnel and the general population, which will give access to adequate and truthful information, increasing the population’s trust in the process of authorization and use of the vaccine(s), and ultimately achieving high coverage.
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Source: Ministry of Health
*This document is under permanent revision according to the evolution and new information available on the infection by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual y de Propiedad Industrial
La información disponible en [el] sitio web [del Ministerio de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar Social], salvo indicación expresa en contrario, es susceptible de reutilización; quedando autorizada su reproducción total o parcial, modificación, distribución y comunicación, para usos comerciales y no comerciales, con sujeción a [ciertas] condiciones. . .
Images supplied by Guidepost from various sources.
>Featured image: European Commission photo from the European Commission Facebook, 19 November 2020. Post: “Since August we (the EC) have concluded 5 contracts with pharmaceutical companies to allow the purchase of vaccine once its development and authorization process has been successfully complete. . .”
>Ursula von der Leyen/her Twitter account
>Spanish vaccination calendar/Ministry of Health, copyright-free
>Caregiver and elderly/Dominic Smith, CC BY2.0, cropped. (www.cerillion.com/Products/SaaS/Cerillion-Skyline)
