The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Anti-Covid vaccines: in conflict with AstraZeneca, Brussels toughens the rules

2021-03-24T19:04:21.999Z


The European Union announced this Wednesday a turn of the screw on the control of exports of vaccines.


The "vaccine war" in Europe is not about to end.

Last Sunday, inspectors from the "vaccination task force" led by European Commissioner Thierry Breton discovered in the Italian bottling plant Anagni, near Rome, a stock of 29 million anti-Covid doses, AstraZeneca.

A quantity almost equivalent to the total already delivered to the EU by the Anglo-Swedish laboratory in the 1st quarter.

Problem: who were these bottles intended for, even though the leaders of AstraZeneca announced that they could only deliver to Europe a third of its orders (30 million doses instead of the 90 still expected)?

"If the inspection shows that these bottles were to be delivered outside the EU, the question of prohibiting their export will arise", indicates the Elysee.

It would not be the first time: Italy has already stopped recently, with the support of Paris, a batch of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccines leaving for Australia.

As for the stock discovered on Sunday, Brussels suspects the pharmaceutical company of having wanted to reserve it, in part at least, in the United Kingdom.

How to restore order?

More than annoyed by a lab that seems to be leading them by boat, the Europeans want to tighten the bolts.

The subject will be the big part of the summit of the 27 which is being held today by videoconference.

The hardening of the mechanism is already in place.

"Europe is not intended to play the useful idiot"

Of course, AstraZeneca is not alone in imposing delivery delays on its customers.

"But Pfizer, Moderna and soon Johnson and Johnson, if they can suffer problems on the production lines, at least honor their contracts with the EU", underlines an official of the European Commission.

Clearly, Astra would "ride" the EU to better supply the British.

"Europe is not intended to play the useful idiot", pinches the Elysee, recalling that if "millions of doses have been exported from the EU to the United Kingdom, none has made the journey reverse: more reciprocity is needed ”.

PODCAST.

How did the AstraZeneca vaccine come to this?

The story of a doubt

The vaccine created by the Oxford laboratory is indeed manufactured largely in factories on the old continent.

As a sign of this shared exasperation, President Macron like the leaders of the Commission repeat that Oxford had benefited, before Brexit, from 85 million euros of European funds to finance its research!

Coronavirus Newsletter

Update on the Covid-19 epidemic

Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters

The cloth is burning to the point that the Elysee took care to ensure this Wednesday, in response to a British journalist asking "why Europe was trying to blame London for its vaccine fiasco?"

", That it is not the country but the pharmaceutical group that is targeted.

It is true that Prime Minister Boris Johnson does not hesitate to play with the nerves of his ex-partners, declaring that "if we have succeeded with vaccines, it is thanks to capitalism, to greed" ... before " regret 'this little provocation'.

As if that were not enough, the strengthening of control over the labs also revealed possible diversions of exports within the framework of the Covax solidarity system: lots reserved for poor countries, mainly in Africa, would in fact land in rich countries!

The investigation is ongoing ...

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-03-24

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.