Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313317
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 29 NOVEMBER 2020 INTERVIEW The moment this vaccine is out there will be a rush for it, glob- ally. What guarantee can you give that Malta will not lose out? The biggest achievement for Malta was to convince the oth- er EU member states to agree on joint procurement of the vaccine through the Europe- an Commission. This was a Maltese initiative. In this way, the vaccine will be bought by the EU and not the individual countries. This was not going to happen initially and there were some countries that did not want the joint procure- ment. Eventually, a group of large countries – Germany, France, Italy and the Nether- lands – agreed to buy the vac- cine jointly. Malta joined this group but kept insisting on an EU-wide system until the joint procurement was agreed. Every country knows exactly how many doses it will receive from each of the companies that have reached agreements with the EU. The vaccines are partly-funded by the EU and partly financed by the individ- ual countries. Malta has enough vaccine doses to inoculate all people one-and-a-half times if need be. The vaccines will not arrive all at one go. What are we expect- ing in January? The vaccine will arrive in batches every month. We have plans on how we will start no- tifying people to offer them the vaccine. To start with, we will inoculate the front liners who deal with sick patients and the most vulnerable people – those aged 80 and over. There are other groups of people who will receive the vaccine when other batches arrive. To avoid confusion, as we speak, we are compiling a list of people en- titled to receive the vaccine in the first two batches so that we can send them an appointment indicating the place and time where they can get inoculated. Our plan is to have everyone vaccinated within six months. It does not mean that we will wait six months to remove the restrictive measures because with more people inoculated the number of new infections will start to decrease and we will have fewer people treated at hospitals for coronavirus. These vaccines would have been developed in record time, considering that it nor- mally takes years to produce one. There are people who are scared and question the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. What is your message to these peo- ple? The EMA will be certifying the vaccines for safety and ef- ficacy. The normal standards adopted when producing all other vaccines remained in place. The bar during testing was not lowered for the sake of speed. What happened was that there was much more invest- ment poured into the devel- opment process, which meant that research continued 24 hours a day unlike normal cir- cumstances where scientists work an eight-hour day. Addi- tionally, the regulator, unlike normal circumstances where it receives test results, analysis them and communicates back its conclusions, was perform- ing a rolling analysis. EMA was seeing the test re- sults in real time, which meant that while standards remained high, bureaucracy was cut and so the vaccine could be pro- duced at a faster pace. There is no fear that this vaccine will have any more side effects than other vaccines. Every new vac- cine can have its side effects but this is no different to when other vaccines are developed. Shifting to the political realm. On the 4th District you are in a pretty good position – Konrad Mizzi was axed from the Labour Party, Etienne Grech resigned from parliament, and in the latest reshuffle former parlia- mentary secretary Silvio Parnis lost his Cabinet job and is now saying he will not contest the next election. You are practi- cally the only heavyweight on the district. I am going to contest the next general election on the 4th and the 3rd districts like I did in the last election. In the 2017 elec- tion I got 5,000 first preference votes in each district. I was al- ready in a good position but I believe that you have to remain in touch with people and their problems. You have to treat an individual's problem as if it were your own. This is what I have done and will continue doing irrespective of who will be contesting on my districts. But it is also important for the party to have a strong candida- ture on all districts. What is your relationship with Robert Abela? It is very good. I have known Robert Abela for a long time. We have been attending the same gym for many years. Ob- viously, in December and Jan- uary there was the leadership contest. Robert won, I did not. Obviously, one sulks for the first few days but life goes on. I entered politics to serve… the party and whoever voted in the contest wanted me to continue serving as a minister and that is what I am doing… In every Cabinet, there is disagreement but finally when a decision is taken we all pull the same rope. The Prime Minister and myself work well together. Is the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry uncomfortable for government? I believe the public inquiry, the first of its kind, symbolises the party's and government's credentials on the rule of law. We were the party in govern- ment that put the spotlight on itself, knowing full well the in- quiry will concern elements in government. This is not only a sign of courage but of our belief in the rule of law. With what is emerging from this inquiry and the various court cases connected to Daph- ne Caruana Galizia's murder, should the people trust the Labour Party in government again? I believe people should trust this government more than ever before. If there are alle- gations, conspiracy theories, or stories and you try to sweep them underneath the carpet and ignore them; that is the worst thing you could do. There were also facts, not just allegations. That will be established by the inquiry. We have to allow the inquiry to do its work… but opening up and shedding light [on government's work- ings] helps increase trans- parency and the electorate's trust. I don't know any other government in this country's history that opened itself up to scrutiny like this administra- tion has done. We appointed a Commissioner for Standards in Public Life who came from the opposing political camp to scrutinise our behaviour and this shows that transparency does not bother us. Months before the last general election you had predicted the extent of the Labour Party's vic- tory. What is your forecast for the next election? As a party, we still have a lot to offer the electorate and our country… But I understand that the next general election will not be an easy one for us because it would be the second one which we will be contest- ing as a party in government. People normally decide how to vote based on what the Oppo- sition says and what the gov- ernment does. It's easier to say things than actually do them… People will judge us on what we delivered and I believe this is good enough to help us retain the majority we obtained in the last general election. ball: Chris Fearne's predictions