Up to 70% of appointments have recently been missed at some vaccination points in Poland, amid concern over potential side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the government official in charge of the country’s vaccine rollout has announced.
Meanwhile, the government has criticised Poland’s best-selling newspaper, the tabloid Fakt, of sowing panic with its coverage of reported blood clots in some people who have received the vaccine.
At a press conference on Monday, Michał Dworczyk, the prime minister’s chief of staff, noted that at “many” vaccination points up to 70% of appointments have been missed, usually with people simply not showing up rather than cancelling in advance. “This will disorganise the entire vaccination process,” he said.
While a number of European countries temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine until the European regulator confirmed that it was safe, Poland continued its use. Last week, Dworczyk accused other EU governments of giving in to “media-fuelled panic” and “disinformation”.
On Monday, he repeated that criticism, but added that “confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine is returning” and the number of missed appointments in Poland is expected to decline.
Poland was initially one of the quickest in the EU at rolling out Covid vaccines, but it's recently really slowed down and over the last week has administered fewer than almost any other member state pic.twitter.com/9gUQJi5KWL
— Daniel Tilles (@danieltilles1) March 19, 2021
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed that, according to figures from Monday morning, an increased number of people are willing to take the AstraZeneca vaccine. He added that Poland “made the right decision not to suspend AstraZeneca vaccinations”.
Meanwhile, the health minister, Adam Niedzielski, reacted angrily to Saturday’s front cover of Fakt. It featured a headline saying “Blood clots after vaccinations?!” and a story based on claims by a woman in the city of Gdańsk that she suffered blood clots after received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In a letter to the head of Ringier Axel Springer Polska, the Swiss-German media conglomerate that owns Fakt, Niedzielski expressed “outrage” at the publication’s editorial judgement. He said they were “playing on the lowest human feelings and emotions” and had used imagery “taken straight out of a horror movie”.
#DziśwFakcie: Pani Agata z Gdańska przyjęła szczepionkę #AstraZeneca. Trafiła do szpitala. "Bałam się, że to koniec"https://t.co/toEouTSgpk pic.twitter.com/IEjU3Q08Hm
— FAKT.PL (@FAKT24PL) March 20, 2021
The minister said that the cover story’s suggestion of “a serious adverse vaccine reaction” had “not been subjected to a medical evaluation” and that editors “did not bother to verify whether the patient’s symptoms were caused by vaccination”.
Niedzielski accused Fakt of seeking to “increase sales” of its Saturday edition and that such “financial” interests “cannot win over the health and life of people”.
Some conservative commentators also suggested that Fakt‘s ownership affected its editorial choices. Samuel Pereira, head of state TV’s news website, tweeted an image of the cover along the question: “So you say that capital does not have a nationality?”
In his comments last week, Dworczyk suggested that concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine were part of a “planned disinformation campaign and a brutal fight by medical companies, possibly supported by the countries in which these companies are registered”.
Są pewne standardy, których powinni przestrzegać wszyscy. Reguły te muszą obowiązywać także w świecie mediów @mark_dekan pic.twitter.com/9oKPmdIBhZ
— Adam Niedzielski (@a_niedzielski) March 22, 2021
To date, Poland has administered more than five million doses of coronavirus vaccines, with 1.78 million people having received both jabs. Overall, Poland’s vaccination rate is slightly above the EU average, though since early March it has fallen behind other member states.
The latest stage of registration began today, with people aged between 60 and 64 now eligible to sign up for a vaccination.
Poland is grappling with a rapid rise in COVID-19 infections, and last week recorded its second highest ever daily number of new cases with 27,278. In response, the government has toughened restrictions, and yesterday the prime minister’s chief Covid advisor warned that a “total lockdown” could soon be introduced.
Main image credit: Marco Verch Professional Photographer/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
