December 17, 2020
Vaccines and PIDs discussed at the 16th PID Forum
On December 3, 2020, IPOPI held its 16th PID Forum on “PIDs and vaccines: protecting the most vulnerable” hosted by the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Ms Maria da Graça Carvalho (S&D, Portugal). The Forum, moderated by Ms Martine Pergent, provided a comprehensive overview of vaccines, from the perspective of a medical expert such as Prof Alain Fischer, from Necker-Enfants Malades and member of IPOPI’s Medical Advisory Panel, and from the perspective of a nurse, with Prof Ann Gardulf, member of the board of INGID.
The Forum then looked into the approval of the vaccines with the very interesting presentation of Ms Manuela Mura, scientific officer at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the presentation of Ms Maria Syrochkina, representing Vaccines Europe.
Vaccines’ accessibility is a huge issue across Europe. We looked into whether the vaccines authorised by regulatory agencies such as the EMA, were actually available in European Member States and accessible to patients on the basis of data pooled from the PID Life Index, with a presentation by Ms Leire Solis, health policy and advocacy senior manager at IPOPI.
Lively discussions followed the presentations and pointed to the fact that, even if vaccines are a topic very much discussed on the news, there was still a need for clear, transparent and accurate information to be shared amongst the general public and with patients with PIDs and other chronic diseases. It also was clear that the best way of protecting vulnerable populations such as patients with PIDs was through vaccination, either theirs, their loved ones and/or herd immunity.
A report will shortly follow as well as the presentations displayed at the event.
