This weekend two very curious things happened to me and both have to do with Covid vaccination. The first incident occurred right in the street, when a person aged over 85 told me that three of her neighbours in the same building - one over 90 and the other two over 85 - had not been vaccinated and when they had contacted the CAP and other telephone numbers provided by the administration to explain the situation to them, they had been told either that that they would be called when the time came or that there was no information that they could be given. Her concern was that she had just read that 85% of people over the age of 80 had already had their first dose and was surprised that the percentage was so high, as it obviously did not correspond to what was happening among her neighbours.
I didn’t know how to answer her, but it is very concerning that the anxiety of that group of neighbours wasn’t being addressed by the administration. I told her that we would keep in touch to see if there was any news, as she - who had received her first vaccination dose - was surprised that so many of her neighbours of the same age or older who had not been told anything. As she walked away, she said it again and again: it can’t be 85%.
The second case was a different issue, but also intense and, in a way, more radical. It had to do with a group between the ages of 60 and 69, who have to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca and were determined to wait a while to see if they could do it with some other vaccine. It is obvious that the debate that has taken place with this vaccine demonstrates the concern that has been generated and a certain fear that some have of being guinea pigs. They were all in favour of getting vaccinated, and there was even a doctor among them, but their decision was quite categorical: to wait for the Pfizer to be administered in their age group or even for Catalonia to buy the Russian Sputnik, which if done at present, would put them on collision course with the Spanish government, as has been seen in the failed attempts of the Community of Madrid to do the same.
Sometimes we think that statistical data is enough, but the reality is always much more complex. And yes, many people between the ages of 60 and 69 will not be vaccinated with AstraZeneca even though the statistics do not yet reflect this.