The European Union (EU) has launched a campaign encouraging citizens to receive the coronavirus vaccine after the vaccine has been approved by the European Medicines Agency.
Like many other countries and territories, the EU will offer the vaccine first to the elderly and healthcare professionals. It is expected to receive enough vaccine to inoculate 6.25 million people by the end of the year, according to Reuters.
The EU has signed contracts with several vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna, and plans to vaccinate all adults in the coming year.
“We know that today is not the end of the pandemic, but it is the beginning of victory,” said Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz on Sunday.
To combat the reluctance to receive the vaccine, EU leaders are aggressively launching vaccination as a way to return to the pre-coronavirus status quo, according to the news service.
French President Emmanuel Macron
Emmanuel Jean-Michel MacronMacron now symptom free after positive test for COVID-19 France slowly allowing UK passengers and cargo to enter France to speed up 700 frontline workers for citizenship as a reward for risk MORE, who recently recovered from a fight against the virus, tweeted that Europeans must “stay strong once again” during the release of the drugs.
Our avons unites nouvelle arme against the virus: le vaccin. Tenir set, bis.
– Emmanuel Macron
Skepticism about the vaccine has been particularly high in France, prompting authorities to work to ensure that the public is not forced to take it, according to The Associated Press. Although the first vaccines in many other countries were broadcast on television, France did not do so for its first vaccination in a nursing home, although it was broadcast elsewhere in Europe.
“We don’t need to convince you. She said ‘yes, I am ready to do anything to prevent this disease’, ”said Samir Tine, head of geriatric services at the nursing home, about the 78-year-old resident who received the first dose in France, according to the AP.