The Ministry of Health considers measures against vaccine queue-jumpers

MadridThe Ministry of Health and the regions will meet again this afternoon at the first inter-territorial health council presided over by the new health minister, Carolina Darias, accompanied by her successor in Territorial Policy, Miquel Iceta, with two main issues on the table. The first, to respond to the multitude of complaints about politicians and influential people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus skipping the protocol, as well as the shortage of vaccines due to distribution problems in the European Union at a time when 72.5% of the population would like to be vaccinated immediately, according to the latest barometer of the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS).

And the second, to assess the possibility of increasing restrictions to deal with the second wave, after the European Commission recommended isolating areas with a cumulative incidence higher than 500 cases per 100,000. In fact, Portugal is already considering closing its land border with Spain.

On the first point, the Ministry of Health has sent a draft to all regions, to which Europa Press has had access. It proposes to impose measures against those who jump the vaccination queue. The aim is to "maximise the monitoring, analysis and control of the implementation of the vaccination strategy" and, in case of detecting a "deviation", "apply preventive and corrective measures that are necessary to ensure that vaccination processes" are carried out in accordance with the protocols.

This reprehensible behaviour around the vaccine has affected all parties. The most clamorous case was in Murcia, where more than 450 members of the team of the regional Department of Health were vaccinated, including its head, who eventually resigned. It has also happened in many municipalities in Catalonia - the latest in Tossa, where the mayor, of Junts per Tossa, has been vaccinated - and even in the Church. The bishop of Mallorca, Sebastià Taltavull, got his second Pfizer jab taking advantage of the vaccination of a care home for priests where he has an apartment but where he does not live.

But by dealing with this issue, the Ministry of Health tiptoes over the most clamorous problem facing the regions, in addition to hospital pressure: the lack of vaccines. The Spanish government has not wanted to enter for a moment in the open war between the European Commission and AstraZeneca and, in the same way as her predecessor, Salvador Illa, Darias intends to keep out of it. Illa, in fact, maintains that it remains feasible to vaccinate 60% of the population before summer, although experts see it as impossible at the current rate. For starters, Catalonia is already running out of reserves it needed to administer the second dose.

The second challenge is the restrictions. And Darias will not deviate from the lines marked this afternoon at the meeting with the regional ministers, who will ask again to advance the curfew to 8 pm or modify the current state of alarm to decree total lockdown. The Ministry of Health argues that the current measures are already taking effect in the first regions that extended restrictions, while warning of the "very high risk" of the British strain.

Most already want to be vaccinated

As for the vaccination campaign, which has already been running for a month, the CIS on Thursday shows a completely different scenario in terms of the intention of citizens to accept the vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna. If a month ago only 40.5% of respondents were willing to receive it immediately, this figure now stands at 70.2%. This is a survey conducted between 7 and 25 January and reveals that 16.5% are against.

Download the January CIS survey

Asked why they don't want to receive the vaccine immediately, 26.3% say they are "worried about risks to their health or negative side-effects". Another 23,5% don't trust the vaccines, whilst 14.1% prefer to "wait and see how they work".

The survey also reflects the complicated moment we are in: 44.6% believe Spain "is still in the worse moment of the health crisis", 33.3% believe "the worst is still to come" and only 13.6% are optimistic and believe "the worst is already over". In fact, worry about the coronvirus crisis has grown slightly, with 95% of the population saying they are "fairly" or "very" worried.

El escenario que dibuja el CIS sigue siendo complicado: un 44,6% creen que España "sigue en el peor momento de la crisis sanitaria", un 33,3% cree que "lo peor está por llegar" y solo un 13,6% son optimistas y opinan que "lo peor ya ha pasado". De hecho, la preocupación por la crisis del coronavirus crece ligeramente y un 95% dicen que se sienten muy o bastante preocupados.