Tempers in Europe have been fraying as the European Union tries to get to grips with the slow rollout of covid vaccines in its 27 member countries. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/eu-policies/health-eu-policies/ema-investigates-astrazeneca-vaccine-and-thromboembolic-events/ For some people the culprits are drug companies under-delivering on their contractual commitments, largely because of production capacity problems. For others the scapegoat is the European Commission, which heads the joint EU vaccination procurement programme endorsed by all EU governments to prevent a bidding war in which small countries would lose out.

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An added ingredient is vaccine hesitancy, especially after early suggestions from several prominent voices that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was not effective for elderly people, and more recent concerns about the vaccine’s possible link to blood clots.1

Overall, 9% of people over 18 have received their first dose. But, while countries such as Denmark, Greece, Lithuania, and Poland had used almost all of their deliveries, France and Germany had administered just over two thirds of theirs and Luxembourg only 58%.

Despite criticism of the EU’s vaccine procurement scheme only three countries have broken away to buy doses from other sources. Hungary’s national regulators granted a licence to Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use, as countries can do under European Medicine Agency rules. By 7 March this represented 7.2% of all doses administered in the country. Czechia and Slovakia have since followed Hungary’s lead.

Hungary is the only EU country also using China’s BBIBP-CorV vaccine. It has ordered five million doses, which currently account for 21.3% of administered vaccinations.

Unilateral approval

The European Medicine Agency began a rolling review of Sputnik V based on laboratory and clinical studies on 4 March, but it has not indicated when this may be completed. Its board chair, Christa Wirthumer-Hoche, sparked controversy recently when she suggested that unilateral national approval of the vaccine was “somewhat comparable to Russian roulette.”

The European Commission acknowledges that governments can give their individual approval but says that they are then responsible for the vaccine—unlike the manufacturer, as under the EU scheme. Reports from Hungary suggest that customers themselves are liable for any side effects and that any disputes are dealt with under Russian law. Despite uncertainty over the Russian vaccine’s wider use in the EU, plans have been announced to manufacture Sputnik V in Italy later this year.

As governments look to increase the vaccine rollout they are making efforts to tackle vaccine hesitancy. Sibilia Quilici, executive director of Vaccines Europe, notes that the European region has the lowest confidence in vaccine safety, France being the least confident worldwide.