The vaccine roll out row and the arguments between the EU commission and Astra Seneca are not helping the remain cause. I haven't been following events closely but on the surface it looks as if the Commission were slow out of the blocks and vaccinations in EU member states are falling well behind the UK. I can see how this might play out. It is making a powerful case for staying out and is really not good.
I understand a group of EU countries including Germany and Holland began negotiating with AZ early on last year, at about the same time as the UK did. I suppose a lot of countries were talking to a lot of drug makers who were working on vaccines, none of which were ready or tested.
The EU Commission apparently stepped in and wanted to handle the negotiations EU wide to place bigger orders and get a better price. This slowed everything down, lost three months and put the EU at the back of the queue. Now that supply issues have developed the EU are putting unreasonable pressure on AZ to divert UK production to EU states. The UK press are having a field day and it does not come across well.
The Commission is under pressure with member states unable to get the supplies they need. They were relying on the Sanofi vaccine being ready in France but this has now been abandoned and all eyes are on the UK streaking ahead with 10 per cent of us receiving at least one dose while the EU is around 2 per cent.
A row is brewing about the contract and what it commits AZ to doing. The drug company CEO has given an interview to an Italian newspaper and claims they only committed to 'best efforts' and can't be held responsible for a huge shortfall in deliveries cause by problems at a plant in Belgium. He claims they can't divert production from the UK.
I think Brussels wanted to handle it all centrally to avoid exactly these sorts of arguments going on inside the EU itself. It would have been impossible for all 27 states to be negotiating with multiple potential suppliers back in April last year anyway. And if vaccines did become available as they have, those countries without vaccine contracts, particularly the smaller ones, would have struggled to get any supplies at all. So it must have been the right decision and Germany and Holland obviously agreed.
What isn't clear is why there was a three month delay until an EU order was placed in August and whether or not it had an impact on the production rate now, and as the EU claim, the 'best efforts' clause only applied to the vaccine development and the trials, not the production. A spokesperson has suggested the EU placed orders on AZ precisely because they did have the production capacity across four factories, including the one in the UK.
Meanwhile, other less developed countries look on in disgust as rich nations in Europe squabble about supplies they are unlikely to get for months or even years. I don't think it leaves the UK looking good either. We look as if we are selfishly looking after ourselves while more vulnerable people in Europe go without.
The EU have asked AZ for permission to publish the contract so we can all see what it says although many do not think AZ will agree, citing commercial confidentiality.
I must say it is an awful row to behold because it plays into a nationalist agenda which I really do not believe helps anybody except those who want to use it for their own ends. Let's hope it's settled quickly.
