Romania's representative to the World Health Organization (WHO), doctor Alexandru Rafila, said on Thursday evening that COVID vaccination in Romania will certainly not be mandatory, adding some studies show acceptability of this vaccine is around 50% of the population.

"Certainly this vaccine will not be mandatory, or these vaccines, because we are not talking about just one. The vaccines are new vaccines and there is one thing talking about the DTP vaccine, which has been known for decades and its effectiveness is very well known - the possibility of side effects and so on and so forth - and it is quite another thing discussing a new product, about which the world knows nothing and which has only undergone some clinical trials. So this vaccine will certainly not be mandatory for children, adults or anyone else, and obviously trust in the vaccine has to be built instead of imposed. That is why I am convinced that this discussion about the obligation, at least if we are talking about these new vaccines, is not current," Rafila told Antena 3 private broadcaster.

He underlined that in order to have confidence in this vaccination on the part of the public, it is necessary to have a "very good information campaign," done professionally and transparently.

"Surveys have been conducted, with the WHO also conducting one for Romania. Today, an institute of the Romanian Academy did the same, a study, and in general the acceptability for this vaccine is around 50% of the population. It is important that by vaccination of doctors, risk categories, confidence in the vaccine to increase, but that is conditional upon a very good public information campaign that must be honest, must be transparent, must be professionally done, as if people see that those who receive the vaccine have no problems, have not developed side effects, become protected against the disease, they will certainly have the confidence to get vaccinated as well," said Rafila.

He also pointed out that so far all that is known about these COVID vaccines are the statements of the pharmaceutical companies and an authorisation from the European Medicines Agency must be awaited in order to have complete data on the vaccination campaign to be carried out.

"We can have the right approach after these vaccines are evaluated and authorised by the European Medicines Agency. Until then, we only have some statements from the manufacturing companies, which have completed the third phase of the clinical trials, but all these documents are to be peer reviewed by independent experts from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or the FDA in the United States. Only later can we have the information we are all trying to get. For now, these are only manufacturer's statements and vaccines cannot be administered on the basis of such statements. So only after they are certified," Rafila said.

Asked if President Klaus Iohannis was hasty when making statements about the first phase of COVID vaccination, which could begin somewhere in the first quarter of 2021 and then, in the spring, the rest of the population, Rafila said he was in no hurry because "organising such a campaign takes many days and involves special logistics" and underscored that "it will be a serious problem if the other half of the population who want to get vaccinated will not be able to get vaccinated."

The doctor representing Romania at the WHO also said that it must be understood that the COVID vaccine will not be a regular one, which is given to the family physicians, but it will require special centres because it is about doses of vaccines very sensitive to temperature variations that have to be kept under special temperature conditions.

More than 38% of respondents in the COVID vaccination survey said they would not be vaccinated against COVID-19 if such treatment were available.

The survey was conducted between September 25 and October 16, by the Larics Center for Sociological Research (CCSL), in partnership with the Romanian Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ARPIM) and the Institute of Political Science and International Relations (ISPRI), under the aegis of the Department of Medical Sciences of the Romanian Academy. The sample volume was 1,000 people, and the maximum allowed data error was +/- 3%. The method used was that of telephone questionnaire.

Thus, 38.6% of respondents said that they would refuse to be vaccinated if there was a vaccine against COVID-19; 30% said they would wait a while and get vaccinated only if they heard that people who had taken them did not have troubles; 21.8% said they would get vaccinated, and 8% said they would only accept if they were told more about the treatment. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)