How Did We End Up in This Mess?

How Did We End Up in This Mess?

Insufficient quantities of vaccines are coming in, significantly smaller than expected, even smaller than Croatia should have according to the number of inhabitants. Croats have not yet vaccinated all those at risk, let alone the entire adult population, despite the fact that the beginning of the tourist season is approaching.

The priority groups have been redefined several times so far, once the teachers were there, then the tourist workers, and recently journalists have been mooted.

Some younger people were invited for vaccination, the elders were not

While some at risky groups and those older than 65 fail to get the vaccine, in some places healthy people under the age of 40 managed to get vaccinated. Due to a “system glitch” as explained by the Ministry, mass invitations were sent to people younger than 30 and the invitation was sent to those older than 60.

In some places, the elderly and the sick refuse the AstraZeneca vaccine or any other vaccines for that matter, while elsewhere there is not enough AstraZeneca for those who would like to be vaccinated.

Some people have registered with family doctors who receive not enough doses, and they have a lot of older patients, so they fail to get their turn, while at the same time some younger ones come to the line because they register on the Cijepise.zdravlje.hr portal or because their doctors do not treat or have such old patients.

Claim that it was enough to report to the family doctor - turned out to be false

A lot of people complained that it was not enough to register in one place - either on the platform or with a family doctor - to end up on a centralized census. It appears that those who applied to the platform were invited to be vaccinated, while people from the same age group, registered with a doctor, never got their chance.

In some places, either at mass vaccination or at a general practitioner, it is enough to express readiness for vaccination with AstraZeneca to get to the queue quickly, if nothing else, should there be an excess of vaccines. Some complain that the consent they gave to their doctor to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca means almost nothing, i.e., that hundreds of patients are still ahead of them on the list.

Some who receive invitations for vaccination by e-mail do not see them on time, so they do not appear on time.

Many wanted to cancel an appointment at the Zagreb Fair because they did not want AstraZeneca or had been vaccinated earlier, complained that due to the congestions with their operators, they were unable to unsubscribe from the phone number recommended.

The main reason for the chaos – problems with AstraZeneca

The story of how Croatia came to this kind of chaos is neither simple nor short. However, it should be noted that the blame for the problems cannot be attributed exclusively to Croatia's disorganization. People from significantly better organized EU countries, such as the Netherlands, complain about having similar problems.

For example, the Dutch media reports that the country has received about 4.6 million doses of the vaccine since December, but it has distributed only 3.2 million to date. General practitioners across the Netherlands report a disappointing response in vaccination centers, which has resulted in doctors having to dispose of unused vaccines. Hundreds of thousands of doses remained unused or even discarded.

One of the main reasons for this disarray situation with vaccination in the EU and Croatia is speculations about the effectiveness and safety of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine.

This is true, for example, in The Netherlands. After so much discussion about its safety, the enthusiasm for vaccination has waned. A study conducted by I&O Research showed that as many as 42 percent of Dutch over the age of 60 do not want to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.