PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th January, 2021) France's former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon said on Monday that traditional vaccines should be given priority over the anti-coronavirus shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
"The traditional vaccine method has proven its worth when applied with discretion and realism. In any case, it is inadmissible to force volunteers to be vaccinated with the Pfizer formula. For my part, I favor vaccines of the traditional type that have a high percentage of efficacy... Buy such vaccines in countries that make them (Russia, Cuba, China, for instance)," he wrote in a blog post.
France rolled out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine of the mRNA type a week ago, days after it was approved for use by the EU drug regulator.
Melenchon, who leads the leftist France Unbowed party, said the government should give the Paris-based Pasteur Institute all means necessary to develop a French vaccine before spring, and reserve "experiments with RNA messenger vaccines for those who opt for them."
