BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2021) Amid the slow-going vaccination campaign and following public rows with UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and London over supplies of the vaccine against the coronavirus disease, the European Union is about to receive a shot in the arm as new vaccines are on the way.
The European Commission is currently already under pressure for its incredibly slow vaccination, which has only made it possible to vaccinate 2 percent of the European population to this day, while the United Kingdom has managed to vaccinate more than 13 percent, at least with the first dose, and Israel is above 50 percent of the population, with the same caveat in mind.
To add insult to injury, AstraZeneca announced last week that the number of vaccine doses it would be able to supply to the bloc in the first quarter of this year would be 60 percent less than the planned 400 million due to technical production issues at its Belgium plant. This, combined with the fact that the company continued providing massive quantities of the vaccine doses to the UK thanks to its two factories in the country, irked the officials in Brussels.
However, when the contract between AstraZeneca and the European Commission was made public, it confirmed that as the pharmaceutical group's claim that it had only promised to do its best to respect timetables, although whats constitutes one's best effort is in the eye of the beholder, which makes the dispute more muddled.
EU TRIES AND FAILS TO LASH OUT AT UK
Last week, Brussels decided without consulting the European Parliament and without even informing Michel Barnier, its chief negotiator of Brexit, to create an export-control mechanism for vaccines or their components outside the EU, designed with the UK in mind.
This provoked an immediate response from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who warned President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen that a slowing down on vaccine exports to the United Kingdom would threaten the administration of a second dose to the country's elderly, thus putting them at risk.
Moreover, the EU threatened to include Northern Ireland in its mechanism to control exports of vaccines produced in the bloc. By doing so, the commission succeeded in arousing the ire of both London and Dublin, as this UK region has indeed a special status, making it a de facto member of the European single market. By considering activating Article 16 of the Northern Irish Protocol - before admitting its mistake and backpedaling - the commission gave rise to what the negotiations wanted at all costs to avoid, i.e. a new separation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
AstraZeneca, after having suffered the wrath of Brussels for several days, agreed to deliver additional 9 million vaccines to the EU in the first quarter, bringing the total to 40 million doses, according to Ursula von der Leyen.
The leader of the European Commission also declared that AstraZeneca would also increase its manufacturing capacity in the region.
Nevertheless, all European attempts to be transparent were ultimately unsuccessful or suspect. And the dispute with AstraZeneca is far from over.
Despite the blunders of the European Commission, the future is brightening up with the three first vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna and AstraZeneca back on track. There will quickly be a fourth one: Johnson & Johnson, which will deliver from its factory in Belgium as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives the green light to this fourth vaccine.
Then there is the German Curevac, which will also soon send its approval request to the EMA in Amsterdam.
Next, there are the Russian Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines that will come to the rescue. German Chancellor Angela Merkel even mentioned production of the Russian vaccine in Germany, once Sputnik V is approved by the EMA.
In the meantime, Hungary has approved both the Russian and Chinese vaccines, through the Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition.
While it is still a bit early to celebrate, these developments are encouraging, according to Marc Van Ranst, a virologist and professor at the KU Leuven university.
"We are discovering new clusters of these variants every day, but it is true that hope is at the end of the tunnel: vaccination will very soon be able to resume on a large scale in Europe, now that AstraZeneca is approved and Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is pending approval ... In addition, Sanofi for example, will produce vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech under license in at least one of its factories. Novartis is also a candidate," Van Ranst told Sputnik.
The expert went on to describe the results of the vaccination campaign in Israel as a positive sign that the vaccines do work, at least temporarily.
"All in all, the European Commission can breathe more easily: the vaccination campaign will start again for good and we can hope for the vaccination of 70 percent of the adult population at the end of the summer," Van Ranst concluded.
