This is no time to cry over a spilled vaccine....

Poles are among the least vaccinated against COVID-19 societies - 60 percent have passed the basic vaccination cycle, with only slightly more than 7 percent having taken two booster doses. In the spring, when the Ministry of Health made it possible for people over 60, health care workers and all, regardless of age, who are immunocompromised, to receive a third dose, the response was negligible. Also, because the pandemic had already been virtually canceled a few months earlier, COVID-19 disappeared from the government's and Health Ministry's focus. Simply put, "there was no need to be afraid of it."

However, there are reasons for concern. A huge wave of infections has been sweeping across Poland, for weeks. Influenza and SARS-CoV-2, occurring separately - and sometimes together - are decimating schools and kindergartens, but also workplaces. Social media - at least in the bubbles of people who are concerned about health - are flooded with photos of positive test results. "And it got me!" "The whole family positive!" - one can read in the reports.

You can also read angry questions about vaccination. Poland and Hungary are the only countries in the EU that do not yet have vaccines against the new Omicron variants. The fact that they are more infectious and break down immunity more easily, whether from overexposure or, to a lesser extent, from vaccination, was something that experts were warning about back in the summer. In August and September, the EMA approved two preparations for the European market. And in September, Europe did indeed start getting vaccinated with the new vaccine. Unfortunately, it was produced by a company with which Poland - specifically, former Health Minister Adam Niedzielski - went to war, or at any rate to a sharp confrontation. Pfizer, remaining in litigation over a contract for doses of the vaccine already delivered, has not delivered its new product to Poland.

It's no time to cry over the spilled vaccine, one might say. Let's focus on the future, after all, the Novavax product, approved in October, will arrive in Poland at the end of November (since Moderna does not supply, at least at the moment, new vaccines to Europe, Poland is fully dependent on this manufacturer). This is good news - probably, unfortunately, the only good news. Unofficial information indicates that the first batch is expected to include just over 200,000 doses, which will benefit everyone over the age of 12. For younger children, the health ministry has made no provision for protection against the new SARS-CoV-2 variants.

And what if there are more takers? That, of course, will already be a problem for the new government and the new health minister. The exhaustion of the dose pool, moreover, may be postponed - it is not at all certain that vaccinations will be as readily available as we have become accustomed to. Pharmacies still don't have contracts to provide vaccinations (yes, that includes flu vaccinations for people 65+, theoretically free), and it's unclear how many of them will manage to sign them before December 6. PCP clinics are bowing to the weight of infectious patients. Smaller ones in particular may have great difficulty carving out the time (and space) to conduct vaccination campaigns.

When it comes to influenza vaccination and COVID-19, it looks as if the Ministry of Health (many, many months ago already) found a list of a hundred very bad decisions, and began to implement it - point by point. With great success.