The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is now working almost exclusively on the Covid-19 pandemic. In an interview with EUROPE, its director, Andrea Ammon, explains that the current state of knowledge justifies the EU agency’s relatively alarmist tone. She calls on the population to continue its efforts until a sufficient part of the population is vaccinated. (Interview by Sophie Petitjean)
Agence Europe - The ECDC recently published its 14th risk assessment of the Covid-19 pandemic, calling for continued pressure to be applied (see EUROPE 12658/14). Will this deprivation of liberty situation last much longer?
Andrea Ammon - I think that when we have a higher percentage of the population vaccinated, then we can, of course, ease the measures and return slowly back to a more normal life. But this will still take some time until a sufficient part of the population is vaccinated.
That is why, for the time being, we need to maintain all these measures, so that we do not over stretch the health services.
That’s even more important since we have now seen that these variants are more transmissible, so they’re spread more easily. And it seems from what the results of testing in the countries indicate that they replace the original strain, especially variant B.1.1.7 that was first detected in the UK. This means that all these distancing measures have to be adhered to a high degree, so as to make it more difficult for the virus to spread.
The first assessment of the ECDC (and Europe) at the beginning of the pandemic was that they were pretty sure that it was a Chinese problem. Today, you are defending very firm measures, to the point where young people are presented as a sacrificed population. How do you respond?
It is a sacrifice not only for the young but also for everybody who has to stay home and wear masks and reduce their contacts with other people... I am fully aware of this.
Now coming back to the last year, you shouldn’t forget that what we know today we didn’t know at that time. So, the knowledge of what the virus can do, what the disease looks like, how the virus is spreading, only came step by step. And our assessment, of course, adapted to the increasing knowledge.
So, when we look back, it looks as if we’re more alarmist now than at the time. But at first we didn’t know what we know now.
Can you clarify your position on masks? One gets the impression that, on the one hand, you say that their effectiveness has not been proven and, on the other hand, you recommend their use (see EUROPE 12658/13)?
Here again, the evidence has evolved over time.
Already in April-May, we found that there was evidence [editor’s note: in favour of the masks]. And now we can say that if you wear a mask, it is an additional measure to reduce transmission.
What is very clear is that you can’t just use a mask as your only measurement, you still have to keep distancing. And that hasn’t changed since the spring of last year.
But it’s true that the evidence that masks can contribute to the reduction in transmission infection has evolved.
What kind of mask do you wear?
I wear a surgical medical mask.
The European Union is heavily criticised for the slowness of vaccination campaigns. Do you understand these criticisms?
Yes, I think many believed that once a vaccine was authorised, it would be widely available and everyone could get vaccinated.
In reality, it will take some time until enough of the doses are produced and rolled out. But it is now a process that is in motion and countries have plans in phases in which they want to vaccinate the population starting with the most vulnerable and eventually the vaccine will be offered to everyone.
According to your Vaccine Tracker, nearly 25 million doses have been administered in Europe (see EUROPE 12648/1). Do all Member States provide you with their data?
Now we have data for most countries. It depends on how well the reporting process is in the countries. Most countries report their data once a week, some twice a week.
Our tracker is updated every morning. So, if a country wants to have its data updated daily in the tracker, it can do so.