Vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds must be approved as soon as possible, May is realistic
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Moderna also publishes good results / With the vaccinations Corona will completely lose its horror in a few weeks for vaccinated people
"I think it is very important that the vaccines by BioNTech and Moderna are approved for 12- to 15-year-olds in the European Union as soon as possible," said the health policy spokesman of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats) Dr. med. Peter Liese. "BioNTech's application for approval of its vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds had already been submitted last Friday after a very successful clinical trial (100% effectiveness). Yesterday, the company Moderna had also published its data from the clinical trial showing a protective effect of 96% and very low side effects for 12- to 15-year-olds. I have appealed to the Executive Director of EMA Emer Cooke to carry out the process of approval as quickly as possible. While there probably won't be enough vaccine for all 12- to 15-year-olds before the summer holidays, we need to focus especially on the vulnerable groups.
Children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, severe lung diseases or during cancer treatment are at great risk and since incidence rates are currently falling rapidly across Europe, it is necessary and justifiable to reopen schools before the summer holidays. However, we need protection for the high-risk children then and if this can begin already in May or early June, we would achieve a lot. This is a question of changing an existing authorisation and therefore I would have no understanding if it took longer than four weeks," said Liese who worked as a ward doctor in a children’s hospital prior to his election. He informed that BioNTech and Moderna also expect the results of a clinical trial for children between 6 months and 11 years in a few months.
Read more: Vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds must be approved as soon as possible, May is realistic
Use all authorised vaccines in the next three months / Focus on mRNA vaccines in the medium and long term
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Peter Liese supports European Commission strategy / mRNA vaccines more adaptable to mutations and manufacturers more reliable
"The decision of the European Commission not to use the options with the manufacturers of the vector vaccines Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca and instead to rely more on mRNA vaccines is right. In the short term, however, we must use all vaccines authorised in the EU in order to be able to offer every EU citizen a vaccination by summer," commented the MEP and health policy spokesman of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP- Christian Democrats), Dr. med. Peter Liese, on reports of corresponding decisions by the European Commission.
"The vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are an important help to finally make a vaccination offer to all citizens in the EU and, if possible, to establish community immunity by the summer. This (also called herd immunity) means that so many people are vaccinated that the incidence of infection is dramatically reduced as a result. The existing contracts with 200 million doses of Johnson & Johnson and 300 million doses of AstraZeneca are more than sufficient to achieve this. Unfortunately, however, not only are there slightly more side effects and slightly less efficacy with vector vaccines, they also cannot be adapted to the dangerous variants as easily as mRNA vaccines.
In fact Europe leads the world in climate policy
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US climate target of 50% / Good, that other parts of the world engage, but the targets need to be looked at in perspective and Europe should not hide its light under a bushel
Ahead of the climate summit lead by the US President Joe Biden with participation of the leading economies, the environmental spokesperson of the biggest political group in the European Parliament (EPP Christian Democrats) Dr. Peter Liese insisted not to underestimate the commitment that the European institution have agreed on early Wednesday morning in the climate law.
“Europe was the first continent that formally agreed to climate neutrality in a law and our target for 2030 is really ambitious. Together with colleagues from all the major parties in the European Parliament I sent a letter to the US administration to push them for a -50% target based on 2005. It is reported that President Biden now finally announced this target. This is really ambitious, because unfortunately Donald Trump and his policy meant a major back clash for climate policy in the United States.
Decision on European climate law
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Historic agreement / Climate neutrality legally binding / 55% net target very ambitious / Limited accounting of sinks
In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the EU institutions (Parliament, Council and EU Commission) agreed on the European Climate Law. With this law, the EU binds itself to reach climate neutrality in 2050 at the latest. The target for 2030 is set at 55%. As suggested by the Council of Ministers and the Commission, as well as by the largest political group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats), it remains a net target, i.e. part of the target can be achieved through so-called sinks, such as the management of forests. However, MEPs specified this possibility and limited the amount of sinks that can count towards the target to 225 MT of CO2. The inclusion of sinks had been criticized in some parts because it is not certain whether, for example, forest growth will be stable in the coming years. The compromise makes it clear that the main effort will be from emissions reduction. At the same time, however, the Commission is asked to do everything possible to increase the potential of sinks well beyond the 225 MT, i.e. if things go well, the target may well be exceeded. Experts calculate a net 57%. At the same time, however, other sectors such as transportation and industry have planning certainty. With this compromise, the EPP group mainly defended its priorities.
The negotiator of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats) Dr. Peter Liese was very satisfied. "The agreement is historic. The goal of climate neutrality is now written in law. For the first time, the European Parliament was directly involved in setting the climate targets. Contrary to other claims, the 55% target is very ambitious, considering that we reduced 25% from 1990 to 2020 and now have to reduce 30% in 9 years, it is definitely something to be proud of. Climate protection is the most important task for the future. However, we should set ourselves targets that we can actually meet. Future generations have nothing to gain from targets that are only written on paper."