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Spain in vaccine limbo with doses and confidence in short supply
Rahul Pathak in Madrid
Europe;Spain
02:17

Maria Carmen, 72, is a woman currently in vaccine limbo.

She works as a psychoanalyst in Madrid and has been a victim of Spain's very particular rules on its vaccine roll-out.

In Spain, the Pfizer and Moderna jabs have been reserved for those aged over 80, while the AstraZeneca vaccine has been assigned to people under 55, leaving Carmen In the middle.

"Of course I am worried, because this directly affects me," she said. "I hope that we all get vaccinated as soon as possible."

She added: "I don't know if the vaccination campaign will have progressed enough before the summer, but I hope so. I would like most of the population to be vaccinated by the summer. 

"It would mean everyone would feel more relaxed and can move around easier. That is really important for everyone."

 

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A man waits in an observation queue after being vaccinated against COVID-19 - but many Spaniards could face a long wait to be vaccinated with doses in short supply. /AFP.

A man waits in an observation queue after being vaccinated against COVID-19 - but many Spaniards could face a long wait to be vaccinated with doses in short supply. /AFP.

 

Doctors had been calling for the AstraZeneca vaccine to be offered to older people before Spain suspended its use on Monday.

Nearly a million Spaniards have had at least one AstraZeneca jab, mainly emergency service workers and teachers.

The news that Spain is now investigating the death of a teacher, plus two other cases of thrombosis from people who had been given the AstraZeneca shot will be of huge concern.

However, Spain's Health Minister Carolina Darias urged people not to rush to conclusions.

"It may or may not be caused by the vaccine, it may or may not be related. So far, we know that in these three cases there is a temporal link but a causal link has not been established."

 

A nurse fills a syringe with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Spain before the country suspended use of the jab on Monday. /AFP

A nurse fills a syringe with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Spain before the country suspended use of the jab on Monday. /AFP

 

However, even with EU drugs regulator the European Medicines Agency saying the vaccine is safe, there may be long-term damage to public perception of it.

CGTN Europe took to the streets of Madrid to gauge public opinion.

"I think suspension was the right move. The state needs to guarantee their citizens' safety and if a vaccine doesn't reach our health standards then its right to remove it," one man told CGTN Europe

Another woman told CGTN: "I have always had my doubts about getting vaccinated, because it is so new and there's a lot of misleading opinions and that have generated uncertainty."

That growing uncertainty among the population could lead to greater vaccine hesitancy and that would deal a massive blow to Spain's whole inoculation campaign.

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