EU is flirting with a vaccine disaster

It’s hard not to look in dismay at the feeble start to the European Union’s Covid vaccination campaign.
The bloc has only managed to administer about
8.9 million doses in total, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker, about two for every 100 citizens. The US and the UK are running at seven and 10.5 respectively, while Israel is at 43. Since all vaccines that have been approved so far require two jabs to work, it’s a very steep mountain to climb to get the EU’s program on track.
The future isn’t looking much brighter, unfortunately. The EU has a target of vaccinating fully at least 70% of the population in each member state by the end of the summer, but this objective is at risk. Europe has approved two vaccines, one from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE and another from Moderna Inc, but their supply is insufficient. The European Medical Agency is set to review the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford shot this week, but the British pharmaceutical company says it could cut its first-quarter EU shipment by nearly 60%. Another candidate vaccine from France’s Sanofi won’t be ready until at least the end of 2021 because of a major trial setback. The consequences of this failure could be disastrous if they’re not addressed quickly. The bloc has suffered nearly 426,000 registered deaths from Covid-19 so far, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The longer it takes to bring the pandemic under control, the more lives will be lost. The EU’s reputation is at stake: How can it pride itself on its “social model” if it cannot even protect its most vulnerable citizens? A successful vaccination effort is also the only sustainable way to help the economy recover. The combination of deep uncertainty, lockdowns and other social-distancing measures contributed to a contraction of 7.6% in Europe’s gross domestic product in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund’s October projections.
The EU’s failures start with its pre-orders of vaccines. While it put together
a comprehensive portfolio well before any shots were approved, it was too slow and conservative with the most promising developments: the vaccines based on the innovative messenger RNA (or mRNA) technology from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The EMA lagged way behind the UK and US on approving the Pfizer vaccine. Its delay over the AstraZeneca jab is more understandable, given the problems that marred its trial (AstraZeneca hasn’t
yet applied for US regulatory approval).
—Bloomberg