A translation from a Belgian news article today below.
By the way: the main reason why the US and the UK are 'ahead' in the vaccine drive is vaccine nationalism. The UK somehow made AZ their b***h, and in the US, you have emergency decrees that forbid companies like Pfizer from exporting until a certain threshold is reached (in the case, 100 million doses, I believe). Nice guys finish last.
(from De Morgen)
European mistrust of AstraZeneca runs deep: "We need those *** vaccines!"
If AstraZeneca's vaccine has a side effect, it's choleric rage. The European Commission, the EU countries and the European Parliament, they can drink the blood of the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
The Dutch MEP Esther de Lange compared AstraZeneca with a second-hand car salesman: you don't trust the delivery of a life-saving vaccine to that. The European government leaders also do not have a good word for the pharmaceutical company during their video corona summit. They feel disgusted by the multinational's breach of contract, which has put national vaccination programs at risk. “You would prefer to kick AstraZeneca out,” agrees a Commission official closely involved in the corona crisis. "But that doesn't help the public, on the contrary: we need those *** vaccines!"
Deep mistrust
How deep the mistrust of AstraZeneca is became clear on Tuesday evening. Pharmaceutical representatives consulted with the Member States and the Commission about the considerably less than promised deliveries - not over 100 million doses but 40 million - in the first quarter. During that conversation, AstraZeneca en passant showed a graph showing expected vaccine production at its European facilities for the second quarter - half of what was planned. Although the graph was not discussed - let alone the number of doses decided for the second quarter - an EU representative immediately took a photo of it. It ended up with the Reuters news agency, after which the "exclusive news" was a fact: AstraZeneca fails again! Later that evening, the company issued a statement that non-European sites also make vaccines for Europe. It is not surprising that confidence in AstraZeneca (despite its effective vaccine) has fallen below zero. First, the British-Swedish vaccine maker backed down from the contracted numbers of doses for the first three months of this year. Now doubts are being cast about the second quarter. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot claimed that the UK was receiving more vaccines because it had previously signed a contract - a lie, it turned out. And that London had a contractual right of priority is also a lie.
Penalties
Even the business-friendly European Christian Democrats are now sharpening their knives. Their leader Manfred Weber wants to exclude the company from European research subsidies if necessary. A ban on the export of AstraZeneca vaccines is also a good punitive measure, he says. His party colleague Peter Liese hopes that consumers will boycott all AstraZeneca products if the company continues to break its promises. Soriot and the CEOs of other vaccine makers will be put to the test in parliament on Thursday afternoon. Punitive measures may be good for the mind, but they do not immediately yield more vaccines. That is why EU leaders are committed to increasing vaccine production. Not an easy task - producing a vaccine is high-tech work; mistakes are disastrous - and not a one-off operation. The leaders want to lay the foundation for European vaccine development and production in the future. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also present to leaders a number of tables showing the quantities of vaccines produced and exported in Europe. The still-confidential figures show that AstraZeneca, BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna (the three approved vaccines in Europe) have delivered nearly 40.7 million vaccine doses to Member States to date. At the same time, pharmaceuticals exported nearly 19.2 million doses to non-EU countries, especially the United Kingdom (6 million doses). An export ban helps EU citizens, but also calls for countermeasures. The leaders are expected to leave this bazooka to rest for a while.
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