How Europe's Covid vaccine rollout became a disaster

Europe's fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies has intensified when the European Union said it would tighten oversight of exports after a row with AstraZeneca and Britain demanded that it receive all the shots it paid for.

The 27-nation EU is not faring well in comparison to countries like Israel and the United Kingdom. Even the United States, whose response to the pandemic has otherwise been widely criticised and where tens of thousands of appointments for shots have been cancelled because of vaccine shortages, appears to be moving faster.

While Israel has given at least one shot of a two-dose vaccine to over 40 per cent of its population and that figure in Britain is 10 per cent, the EU total stands at just over 2 per cent.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

For every 100 people in Italy, only 2.6 have received a vaccine dose. The number is 2.4 in Germany; 1.7 in France, 2.9 in Spain, 2.3 in Finland and Switzerland, 2.2 in Austria, 2.0 in Greece, Belgium, Slovakia, Cyprus and Sweden.

Europe's best performing country -- Denmark -- has vaccinated just 3.6 people for every 100.

Britain has injected 7.1 million first doses of vaccines into arms, and is on track to deliver a shot to all over-70s, frontline medics and care workers, the clinically vulnerable and older care home residents - some 15 million people - by February 15.

In the northern French region of Hauts-de-France, France's second-most-densely-populated region, several vaccination centres were no longer taking appointments for a first jab. In several other French regions, some online appointment platforms closed booking options.

Spain's Madrid region has ceased first vaccinations for at least this week and next and was using the few doses it has to administer second shots to those who have had the first one, said deputy regional government chief Ignacio Aguado.

Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, last week postponed opening its vaccination centres until February 8, while the state of Brandenburg has also had to push back vaccination appointments originally scheduled for the end of January due to delivery delays.

Germany's top-selling Bild newspaper described the problems around procuring vaccines as a "scandal".

As vaccination centres in Germany and France cancelled or delayed appointments, the EU publically rebuked Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca for failing to deliver and even asked if it could divert supplies from Britain.

The EU Commission, which has coordinated vaccine orders, said it would on Friday detail a mechanism to require both notification and authorisation of COVID-19 vaccine exports from the bloc.

Britain, which has repeatedly touted its lead in the vaccine rollout race since leaving the EU's orbit on January 1, said its deliveries must be honoured.

The swiftest mass vaccination drive in history is stoking tensions across the world as big powers buy up doses in bulk and poorer nations try to navigate a financial and diplomatic minefield to collect whatever supplies are left.

The EU scolded AstraZeneca on Wednesday and demanded the drugmaker spell out how it would supply the bloc with reserved doses of COVID-19 vaccine from plants in Europe and Britain.

Tensions have risen as both New York-based Pfizer and AstraZeneca, headquartered in Cambridge, England, have had production problems.

The EU rollout was also slowed because the European Medicines Agency took more time than the US or UK regulators to authorise its first vaccine.

But individual countries also share in the blame.

Germany, Europe’s cliche of an organised and orderly nation, was found sorely wanting, with its rollout marred by chaotic bureaucracy and technological failures.

The Dutch have been particularly criticized since they were the last in the EU to begin vaccinations, more than a week after the first shots were given in the bloc, and they have been especially slow to roll doses out to elderly people living at home.

(with inputs)