The rapidly rising case number of COVID-19 infections in Europe and threats from emerging variants call for urgent and determined actions. The Council of European Dentists (CED) would like to address these concerns by underlining the importance of tackling the pandemic by vaccination. A common and coordinated approach across the whole EU by healthcare professionals, including dentists, and patients is paramount in fighting the pandemic by preventing and reducing transmission, and ensuring long-term health security.

Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 are the best way out of the pandemic. The safety and effectiveness of all authorised vaccines have been studied thoroughly with controlled and randomised clinical trials before their approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), with which the CED engages as official representative of the dental profession in the EU. These scientific evaluations show that the benefits of the authorised vaccines are, in terms of protecting people against diseases, much greater than any potential risks of side effects which may be related to vaccines, just as to any other medicinal product.

EMA aims to expedite the development of effective medicines and vaccines to fight and prevent the spread of COVID-19. The COVID-19 EMA pandemic Task Force is at the centre of the efforts to enable EMA, the European medicines regulatory network and the European Commission to take quick and coordinated regulatory action during the pandemic across all EU Member States. Moreover, the safety aspects of COVID-19 vaccines are closely monitored through the EU Pharmacovigilance System and any safety concerns will be promptly known to the public and dealt with.

The European Commission and Member States have taken a common EU approach to securing supplies and facilitating their distribution. The EU Vaccines Strategy remains the EU’s primary tool for ending the pandemic by preventing and reducing transmission of cases, as well as hospitalisation rates and deaths caused by the disease. It is complemented by the EU strategy on COVID-19 therapeutics. They form part of a strong European Health Union, using a coordinated EU approach to better protect the health of our citizens, equip the EU and its Member States to better prevent and address future pandemics, and improve resilience of Europe’s health systems.

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