The European Union has delivered 34 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to dozens of third countries in recent weeks despite member states facing supply shortages, which considerably slowed down vaccination pace within the bloc compared to the US, the UK and Israel, The New York Times newspaper has revealed, citing internal documents
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th March, 2021) The European Union has delivered 34 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to dozens of third countries in recent weeks despite member states facing supply shortages, which considerably slowed down vaccination pace within the bloc compared to the US, the UK and Israel, The New York Times newspaper has revealed, citing internal documents.
The European bloc has recently been subject to harsh criticism over its "vaccine nationalism" and protectionism, with tensions intensifying last week, when Italy, in coordination with the EU, blocked a shipment of 250,000 coronavirus shots bound for Australia.
The internal documents, including export numbers, however, proved the opposite, showing that the EU has been far from vaccine protectionism, the newspaper reported, adding that if made public, that news would have outraged Europeans who are still waiting for vaccines.
According to the newspaper, whether to reveal how many vaccine doses the bloc exported to third countries has been hotly discussed in the corridors of the European Commission. Several senior EU officials supported the idea, saying unveiling the EU's contribution to the global fight against the pandemic would improve Europe's image in the international arena after last week's spar over vaccine shipments to Australia.
The export data shows that the UK was the biggest importers of EU-produced vaccine doses, as it received nine million out of these 34 million doses over the past month. It was followed by Canada (four million doses) and Mexico (3.1 million doses), The New York Times added.
