The first people are now being vaccinated against Corona.
But the process will take a long time in the EU.
This has to do with wrong political decisions.
Munich - At the beginning of the week,
Health Minister Jens Spahn
sounded
a little annoyed: There is criticism everywhere because the EU in general and Germany in particular
had
ordered too few vaccines
.
"It's scarce everywhere, for everyone in the world," said Spahn.
But the
hesitant approach in Berlin and Brussels
could actually be
an uncomfortable part of politics for a while.
The
Focus
columnist January Fleischauer wrote: "We still need
three more lockdown
in order to be able to keep under control while we see with envy to America or Canada, where the population is then vaccinated by now." He also raises
Angela Merkel *
personal Failure before.
In general, the finger is pointing towards Brussels: two weeks ago,
Der Spiegel
reported
that the EU had
bought
too little too late
- and that from the
wrong manufacturers
.
Brussels also relied on the
French company Sanofi
and the
British-Swedish manufacturer AstraZeneca
,
both of which had to significantly postpone
the
approval of their vaccines
.
In Germany of
all places
there is not
enough of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine
developed in Mainz
.
Video: Spahn speaks out against special rights for corona vaccinated people
Political failure in vaccine procurement: Biontech and Moderna were kept short
How could this happen?
The EU actually leaves
health care to
its member countries.
In the spring, Germany therefore
initiated
a
vaccination alliance
with France, Italy and the Netherlands
and made initial agreements.
But then it was agreed to
act
unanimously across Europe
.
The first contracts were concluded from August onwards, with
Biontech and Moderna
, of
all
providers, being kept short that are the first to have their vaccine on the market today.
The
USA
, however, had already secured 600 million cans from Biontech and 500 million from Moderna in July.
For comparison:
Germany
is to receive eleven to 13 million cans by the end of March.
Part of the truth, of course, is that for a long time it was unclear which
vaccine efforts
would lead to success.
This is one of the reasons why Brussels spread its purchases -
two billion vaccine doses from six manufacturers so far
.
But, according to
Spiegel
, later larger orders from particularly promising companies also failed due to
resistance from certain countries
.
It is noticeable that Brussels ordered 300 million cans each from the German Biontech and the French Sanofi.
In any case, Biontech could have delivered more.
Moderna boss Stéphane Bancel also reported to
Spiegel
: “We could have provided more.”
Approval
for Moderna is
expected
on January 6th
.
Sanofi, however, has postponed approval to the last quarter of 2021.
The result:
uncertainty
prevails with 700 million cans ordered by the EU
.
+
They are springing up like mushrooms: vaccination centers all over the world were prepared in no time at all.
© Markus Scholz / dpa
Political Failure in Getting Vaccine: Significant Price Differences
And another part of the truth: of course, it was also about
price
.
The Belgian State Secretary for Consumer Protection Eva De Bleeker accidentally
posted
a
price list for the vaccine
on Twitter
: According to this, the drug from the US company
Moderna is
the most expensive: It costs 18 dollars per dose.
The US corporation
Johnson & Johnson
would charge $ 8.50.
The prices of the other providers were given in euros: The vaccine from Mainz-based company
Biontech
and its US partner
Pfizer
is therefore twelve euros per dose, the Tübingen-based company
Curevac charges
ten euros, the French from Sanofi 7.56 euros.
By far the cheapest would be the
AstraZeneca
product
with only 1.78 euros.
The entry was deleted shortly afterwards.
(mm) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network
