His company, along with German partner BioNTech, was the first to roll out a COVID-19 vaccine now in use in Greece and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said he got emotional seeing his Father-in-Law taking the shot.
“This is my father-in-law, the 1st member of our family to receive his 1st dose of the vaccine,” he said in a post on Twitter accompanied by a photo.
“At 84, he is high-risk & graciously waited his turn in Greece. I've heard many stories from people filled with emotion at seeing their loved ones get vaccinated. Now, I know the feeling,” he added.
There will be a wait for most people as those over 85 were first in line – after high-ranking politicians took priority – and now those under that age are being vaccinated but there are far fewer doses than expected so far.
The New Democracy government late last year said it expected to get millions of doses of the vaccine but in the first weeks of a slow roll-out only 176,689 people have been protected, the vaccine needing two shots three weeks apart.
Only 7,880 have received the second shot and health officials said 70 percent of the country’s population need to be vaccinated – or about 7.35 million – to slow the spread of the virus.
A health Ministry official also said that the country received a second batch of 100,000 Pfizer vaccines on Jan. 26 and expects 815,000 doses by the end of February and 1,415,000 by the end of March, still far shot of what’s needed to be effective.