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Vaccine shortages are beginning to bite in more and more EU MS, as rollouts are - FINALLY - beginning to pick up speed. @FT tells us that Portugal and France have now been forced to delay 1. jabs due to shortages. This bad news - BUT questions exist 1/n https://www.ft.com/content/1b2afe60-b5e6-456d-98e0-313fe664d0b9
It is NOT news most efficient EU vaccine injecters have to scale back 1. jabs temporarily due to supply constraints - this has been a weekly issue in DK since vaccinations began & DK (without much drama BTW) had to de facto stop 1. jabs on Jan 16th, so FR/PT "catching up" 2/n
The mystery though is why other MS have to stop 1. jabs so soon and at such - compared to DK - low levels of vaccinations? DK health authorities say they will use vaccines received this week for 2. jabs, which will see DK exceed the UK % of population with 2. jabs likely 3/n
tomorrow and end the week with ~1.5% of total pop (and about half of those initiated vaccination) given 2. jabs. This is evidently a very different rollout strategy from the UK, which strongly prioritizes 1. jabs, but the question remains why countries like FR and PT have to 4/n
stop first jabs at such low levels and for so long - FR regions according to @FT up to 4weeks and PT "for months and Madrid for 10days. If the @EU_Commission is telling the truth and has been distributing vaccines to MS according to population, there should not be such 5/n
binding shortages at levels of vaccinations far lower than in DK. Unfortunately, we don't know, because the @EU_Commission @MamerEric @SKyriakidesEU do not release the data for actual vaccine deliveries to EU MS. Why not? EU publics have a right to know, whether their govs 6/n
have received the same number of vaccines per capita as DK - because IF they have, many MS govs must either have "lost" some of these vaccines or are adopting an excessively cautious rollout approach assuming a total stop for vaccine deliveries immediately (i.e. reserving 7/n
2 doses for each recipient right away, storing the 2. rather than allowing for new supplies to deliver 2. shot).
:-) It would be nice if a member of the press could ask @MamerEric or @SKyriakidesEU why the @EU_Commission do not release these daily data?
8/n
:-) It would be nice if a member of the press could ask @MamerEric or @SKyriakidesEU why the @EU_Commission do not release these daily data?
8/n
Maybe @EU_Commission don't know (BAD!)? Maybe @EU_Commission only want "transparency" for EU vaccine exports (BAD 2)? If these data were public an important question could be answered in each MS. Is this a "supply problem" (MS quickly uses all available doses e.g. DK/MT) that 9/n
@EU_Commission "owns"? Or is this at least 4 now a "rollout problem" (MS has a much lower level of vaccinations than DK/MT, and has to stop 1. "prematurely") that the national government "owns"? No one knows - and that's a real transparency and accountability problem for Europe.
