The debate, led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, was held after his chief of staff, Michał Dworczyk, invited politicians from all parliamentary groups to get together and discuss the immunization effort in a nonpartisan way.
“Let's meet to talk about facts and focus on real problems, while keeping vaccinations out of day-to-day politics,” Dworczyk said on Monday.
“There are many other areas where we can argue, sometimes very sharply, but let’s put this particular issue outside the bounds of political dispute," he added.
Dworczyk appealed to the opposition “not to scare the Polish people” by claiming that the inoculation effort was poorly planned and likely to end in failure.
Opposition lawmaker Cezary Tomczyk, head of the parliamentary caucus of the Civic Coalition (KO) group, during a press conference on Tuesday. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Dworczyk, who is in charge of the national inoculation drive, said last week that a move by pharmaceutical firm Pfizer to reduce the supply of its COVID-19 shots had forced Poland to change its vaccination plans.
Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said ahead of Tuesday's meeting that the national vaccination program “should be carried out in a calm atmosphere, without any confusion and political wrangling.”
He added that the government was open to a debate on ways of improving the vaccination campaign.
Michał Dworczyk (right), the man in charge of Poland's COVID-19 vaccination campaign, and Health Minister Adam Niedzielski (left) talk to reporters in Warsaw on Monday. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
By Tuesday, a total of 776,987 people had been vaccinated against the coronavirus in Poland, according to officials.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced last month that his government had secured vaccines for the Polish population from six leading international drug makers.
On Monday, the latest shipment of 365,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech arrived in Poland, according to Michał Kuczmierowski, head of the government's Material Reserves Agency.
Poland on Tuesday reported 4,604 new coronavirus infections and 264 more deaths, bringing its total number of cases to 1,482,722 and fatalities to 35,665.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP
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