BFF-41, 42 Erdogan gets jab as Turkey unrolls Chinese vaccine

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Erdogan gets jab as Turkey unrolls Chinese vaccine

ANKARA, Jan 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan stripped down to a black t-shirt and got vaccinated on
Thursday as the nation of 83 million people began rolling out China’s
Sinovac jab despite conflicting data about its efficacy.

The 66-year-old Turkish leader was whisked into an Ankara hospital
by a bevy of security guards before emerging about an hour later to
stress the importance of officials setting a good example by getting
the jab.

“There are some people doing negative campaigning (about
vaccinations) but I am sure common sense will prevail,” Erdogan said
as a masked doctor stabbed him with a needle while a nurse put a
comforting arm on his shoulder.

“I believe it will be vital for political leaders and deputies to
encourage the vaccination drive (by getting vaccinated) themselves,”
he later told a group of waiting reporters.

One opinion poll conducted in November showed about half of Turkish
respondents unwilling to take the jab.

Health officials have spent two weeks testing the safety of the
doses delivered from China after preliminary studies involving 7,371
volunteers in Turkey showed Sinovac’s vaccine to be 91.25 percent
effective.

But a bigger trial in Brazil put the efficacy of Sinovac at 50.4
percent while a third one in Indonesia resulted in a 65.3 percent
success rate, raising concerns about the Chinese manufacturer’s
transparency.

Turkish television was plastered with images on Thursday of
healthcare workers receiving their first doses as officials tried to
raise awareness and acceptance of the vaccine.

“Our citizens should not worry,” Recep Demirhan, chief physician at
a city hospital on the Asian side of Istanbul, told reporters as he
received his shot, adding all vaccines arriving in Turkey are safe.

And the doctors and nurses lining up for their shots sounded
relieved after a year fighting a virus that has officially killed more
than 23,000 in Turkey and filled hospitals in hotspots such as Ankara
to capacity.

“We have been struggling for a long time,” said Nimet Aktasa, a
health worker in Ankara.

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– ‘Light at end of tunnel’-

After covering Turkey’s 1.1 million healthcare workers, the
vaccination programme will move on to essential workers and people
aged 65 and above.

“This vaccination drive is needed to return to our normal, old way
of life,” Koca said on Wednesday.

“We see the light at the end of the tunnel and I believe the coming
days will be bright.”

Turkey has signed up for 50 million doses of CoronaVac. Twenty
million of them are due to arrive by the end of the month.

The official Anadolu news agency reported that Turkey also sent
20,000 doses to the breakaway state of northern Cyprus, which is
recognised only by Ankara.

In December, Turkey also reached a deal to receive 4.5 million
doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab by late March.

Officials hope to receive up to 30 million doses from
Pfizer-BioNTech, although talks are still ongoing.

Turkey has seen its official daily death tolls slip back down to
under 200 after imposing weekend lockdowns and other daily
restrictions in November.

Last month, it began requiring passengers arriving from abroad to
submit negative PCR tests.

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