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I'm seeing misinformation going around about the EU's vaccine procurement process, thanks to a few rather unreliable German media and politicians.
There have been problems in the 1st week of the EU's vaccine roll-out but it's not to do with procurement. Here's a good explainer: https://twitter.com/StefanLeifert/status/1345362737497579520
There have been problems in the 1st week of the EU's vaccine roll-out but it's not to do with procurement. Here's a good explainer: https://twitter.com/StefanLeifert/status/1345362737497579520
Key point here: the problem isn't that EU ordered "too few" vaccines. It pre-ordered 2bn doses for 450m people, spreading those orders across a wide portfolio of different vaccines because it didn't know which would work.
At the moment only 1 is approved. https://twitter.com/StefanLeifert/status/1345362741280829440?s=20
At the moment only 1 is approved. https://twitter.com/StefanLeifert/status/1345362741280829440?s=20
Even a psychic EU that predicted Pfizer/Moderna success and ordered more of those wouldn't solve the current bottleneck problem, which is low production capacity rather than low order quantity.
Biontech now has EU loan of €100m to expand production. https://twitter.com/StefanLeifert/status/1345362747370971138?s=20
Biontech now has EU loan of €100m to expand production. https://twitter.com/StefanLeifert/status/1345362747370971138?s=20
TLDR: We're 1 week in on a 1 year vaccination process.
The Moderna vaccine should be EU-approved Wednesday, which will improve supply problems. We'll know more about relative success of vaccination campaigns by end of Spring.
Have some patience people.
The Moderna vaccine should be EU-approved Wednesday, which will improve supply problems. We'll know more about relative success of vaccination campaigns by end of Spring.
Have some patience people.
One more point on this.
There's some frustration with EU Medicines Agency for approving vaccines much later than other countries (which has nothing to do with joint EU procurement).
But any EU country had option to do an emergency approval before EMA acted. They didn't. Why?
There's some frustration with EU Medicines Agency for approving vaccines much later than other countries (which has nothing to do with joint EU procurement).
But any EU country had option to do an emergency approval before EMA acted. They didn't. Why?
The EU is dealing with populations that have much higher vaccine scepticism than UK or US.
EMA chose to go with 1-year conditional approval rather than emergency approvals like
, a somewhat more robust process.
Will that convince more people to vaccinate? Hard to say.
EMA chose to go with 1-year conditional approval rather than emergency approvals like
, a somewhat more robust process. Will that convince more people to vaccinate? Hard to say.
But in a year-long vaccination campaign, an approval delay of two weeks probably won't make a huge difference in the long run.
People screaming about an "unmitigated disaster" in vaccine rollout now, in any country, are really jumping the gun. There will be big challenges ahead.
People screaming about an "unmitigated disaster" in vaccine rollout now, in any country, are really jumping the gun. There will be big challenges ahead.
