Health minister's self-contradictions on Covid vaccination: 'All targets missed'

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While Turkey has so far vaccinated more than 11 million people, or about 13 percent of its population, with the China-made CoronaVac, this number is far behind what Health Minister Fahrettin Koca suggested at the start of the rollout in mid-January.

Among those vaccinated, 3.3 million got two shots, which is needed for immunity.

Faruk Bildirici, an independent media ombudsperson, reviewed Koca's statements about the vaccination program since late December.

On February 25, the minister said they aimed to vaccinate 52.5 million people before June at the latest and on March 11, he said, "If we vaccinate 50 million of our population before autumn as we planned, the pandemic will cease to be a heavy pressure on us," Bildirici notes in an article on his website.

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In accordance with Koca's statement that Turkey has the capacity to vaccinate one million people a day, it should have given shots to 30 to 40 million people so far, he said.

However, Koca's statements on how many vaccine doses were procured were also contradictory, said Bildirici.

"In his initial statements, Minister Koca said a contract was signed with Sinovac for the procurement of 50 million doses in December-January-February. According to the minister's statements, 50 million vaccine doses were going to be in Turkey by the end of February.

"However, it is understood from Minister Koca's own words that this many vaccines have not come. He said on February 10 that the number of vaccine doses received was 15 million. However, according to his statements, the number of vaccines received by that date should have been at least 30 to 40 million."

Domestic vaccines and Biontech

While the minister said on December 1 that Turkey's domestic Covid vaccine would be in use in April, he said on March 11 that it would be available "in the near future," Bildirici noted.

"Minister Koca has made statements about domestic vaccine studies, announced that the vaccine that is being developed at Erciyes University was in phase 2 and six vaccine candidates were in phase 1," he said.

"However, the vaccine produced at Erciyes University is still in phase 2. The university rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Çalış stated on March 12 that 'I hope phase 2 vaccination will end towards the end of April.'

"In this case, it doesn't seem possible that the phase 3 studies will end before October. Because the Sinovac vaccine's phase 3 studies at Hacettepe University started on September 17, 2020, and its results were announced on March 12, 2021."

Bildirici also noted that Koca previously said Turkey will get 550,000 doses of Pfizer's Biontech by the end of January and 4.5 million doses by the end of March. There has been no official statement about the procurement of Biontech vaccine. (TP/VK)