00:00Did the European Commission approve COVID-19 vaccines without proper checks?
00:08A claim has resurfaced online alleging that the European Commission
00:12recently admitted that COVID-19 vaccines were approved without proper health checks.
00:17Social media users and other media outlets refer to an article published by the German newspaper
00:21Berliner Zeitung, which headlines EU Commission admits
00:25Corona vaccines were released without complete safety data.
00:28The Berliner Zeitung quotes a question asked by Gerald Hauser,
00:32an MEP for the far-right Patriots for Europe group and a vocal septic of Europe's vaccine strategy.
00:37Hauser asked the Commission why it did not inform citizens that the efficacy and safety of the
00:41gene-based vaccine were not guaranteed. In August, the Commission responded by stating
00:46that vaccines were granted a conditional marketing authorization, which facilitates access to
00:51medicines with unmet medical needs, whilst a comprehensive data dossier is not yet available.
00:55The Commission told EUROVERIFY that claims that vaccines were approved without the proper checks
01:00were a misinterpretation, adding that conditional market authorizations green-light medicines with
01:06less comprehensive clinical data than normally required.
01:09These measures are regulatory trade-offs applied in exceptional public health emergencies,
01:14such as pandemics, when the need for immediate vaccine access outweighs the risks of having
01:18all the available data. For instance, the Ebola vaccine was granted a conditional marketing
01:23authorization in 2019 to tackle the epidemic before receiving a full one in 2021.
01:30Even though COVID vaccine authorizations were sped up, tens of thousands of individuals still
01:34participated in clinical trials to ensure vaccines met the standards of the European Medicines Agency.
01:41Although initially they had conditional authorizations, they have since been granted
01:44full authorizations due to meeting the required medical and data needs.
01:48Still, vaccine monitoring continues even when full marketing authorizations have been granted,
01:54meaning authorizations can be withdrawn.
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