COVID-19 apart from putting severe pressure on healthcare systems worldwide and causing global economic meltdown has created a number of other challenges. One of the core ones is the question of responsibility. This issue was raised by the European Parliament in September 2020 in the discussion with the representatives of the pharma industry and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January 2021 in the Resolution “Covid-19 vaccines: ethical, legal and practical considerations”.

As for today, the EMA gave the “conditional authorisation” for marketing of the Pfizer, the Moderna and Astra Zeneca (awaits endorsement by the European Commission) vaccines on the territory of the European Union but the final authorization will be given by 31.12.2023 for Pfizer, by 30.06.2024 for Moderna and submission of the study report is expected in March 2024 for Astra Zeneca. What does it mean for the pharma, for the governments, and for the people? How does the “conditional authorisation” relate to the social or political pressure resulting from medical emergency? And what consequences are there for keeping restrictions of freedoms in force?

The tendency is for questions on responsibility to be raised by people’s representatives – MPs and MEPs – but we hear no substantial discussion on the subject on either political or governmental level, nor in media. Yet, answering this question is crucial to gaining the trust of people who doubt whether to vaccinate or not.

Therefore, the goal of the event is to address the question of responsibility from multiple perspectives to breach the existing gap in a debate.

Speakers:
Tanja Porčnik, co-founder and president of the Visio Institute, Slovenia
Rahel Zibner, Project Manager for Spain, Italy & Portugal at Friedrich Naumann Foundation
Arsen Zhumadilov, General Manager at State Enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine
Nataliya Gumenyuk, Co-Founder at Public Interest Journalism Lab
Kateryna Bulavinova, medical expert at UNICEF Ukraine
Moderator: Maryna Yaroshevych, “Promote Ukraine”