BBC presenter Ros Atkins spectacularly dismantled Emmanuel Macron’s misleading and dangerous AstraZeneca comments tarring him as “wrong”. The BBC presenter was responding to a statement from the French President in January when Mr Macron wrongly claimed the vaccine was “quasi-ineffective” on people older than 65. But Mr Atkins went on to say the damage was already done and by this point, a dangerous “perception” of the vaccine was developing across Europe.
He added that it was in fact down to the issue that “there was a shortage of data for the over 65’s” but “everything suggested the vaccine would be effective.”
The presenter went on to highlight that the inaccurate statement by President Macron at the time led to a dangerous “perception” of the vaccine in France resulting in only 20 percent of French citizens having trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But 52 percent trusted the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
A similar affect was seen in Belgium where the vaccine was nicknamed “the Aldi vaccine” according to one BBC report from February.
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The European Medicines Agency found the jab was “safe and effective” to use.
They said there was little evidence for the decision to temporarily suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the bloc.
But as a result of the distrust in the AstraZeneca jab on the continent following the spread of misinformation of its safety, the resumption of the rollout has been slow.
European Union leaders will meet this Thursday to decide whether they will introduce a blockade on jabs to the U.K.
