EU Covid vaccine rollout ‘slow’; Germany, France are tightening restrictions

The European Union has been criticized for the speed at which Covid vaccines are deployed as the two largest economies expand their coronavirus restrictions due to worrying case numbers.

A number of European officials have voiced concerns about the bloc’s vaccination plans in recent days and have asked the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to explain why it has not bought more injections.

According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, more than 17 million cases of the coronavirus have been reported in the region (including the UK) to date.

“It is difficult to explain that a very good vaccine is being developed in Germany but is being vaccinated more quickly elsewhere,” said Markus Söder, the leader of Germany’s Bavaria region, in an interview this weekend, Politico said. German company BioNTech has teamed up with Pfizer to develop one of the front runners on Covid vaccines.

The European Union began its vaccination program at the end of December, following the approval of the Pfizer / BioNTech shot. Despite being developed in Germany, the jab received approval in the UK and the United States long before it got the green light from European authorities.

Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, also told the German press this weekend that “the process in Europe was certainly not as quick and easy as in other countries.”

The UK has approved two other vaccines in the meantime, but the European Medicines Agency has not yet ruled on the AstraZeneca or Moderna offering.

In addition to timing concerns, there are also questions as to whether enough vaccines have been purchased by the EU.

“The (European) Commission should seize this opportunity. How will the EU compensate for the lack of purchased files in the Union?” Luis Garicano, a European legislator, wrote in a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this weekend.

The European Commission has signed six contracts with vaccine manufacturers on behalf of European countries. Each EU country receives the vaccines at the same time and they are distributed per capita.

Under these contracts, the EU agreed to purchase 200 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine with the option to purchase an additional 100 million doses. The Commission also agreed to purchase 300 million vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, with the option to purchase an additional 100 million. The contract with Moderna agrees to purchase 80 million doses, plus an option to purchase an additional 80 million doses.

According to the region’s statistical office, more than 447 million citizens live in the 27 EU countries.

“Israel, a nation with only 1 / 50th of the population of the EU, has vaccinated more citizens than all EU Member States combined. Madam President, how is that possible?” Garicano asked in his letter to von der Leyen.

A spokesman for the European Commission said on Monday that the institution was “very focused on ensuring that the implementation of our strategy is done, done well.”

“The committee understood very, very early that both the vaccine acquisition and the vaccination process would be great efforts for the European Union,” the spokesman virtually told reporters.

France, one of the most vaccine-skeptical countries in the EU, announced last week that it was speeding up its vaccination process. The country is also adjusting curfews in the worst affected regions to stem the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, Germany, which has had a national lockdown in place since the end of November, must extend this emergency measure until the end of the month.