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After weeks of intensive debate on EU's vaccine standing compared to UK, USA, we try to show that in narrow speed terms Germany & maybe France have been slowed down by the EU collective effort, but the vast majority of EU countries are better off for it https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/world/europe/eu-vaccines-germany.html
As @GuntramWolff tells us, politically & economically, Germany pulling ahead of other EU nations would have been catastrophic. A country that hugely depends on movement of labor, exports & shares borders w/ 9 others reaps large benefits from all being vaccinated at the same time.
What we saw play out in January was in part a standard game of Blame the Commission. Some failings in EU vaccine rollouts stem from local mistakes (phone appointments not working, shortages of disposables, etc) that we saw across EU, in Germany too.
We look at how the Commission made errors early on, which very much relate to its limited capabilities & internal culture. Those mistakes were predictable & could have been ameliorated by bringing in experts instead of tasking trade negotiators w/ talking to Big Pharma.
Post-AstraZeneca crisis, the Commission & leaders have made "mistakes made, lessons learned" noises. Most critical for the next phase of managing vaccine production issues will be a change of course internally. That might be harder. We still see defensiveness from bureaucrats.
Read our story with @meddynyt here:
Solidarity Is Not an Easy Sell as E.U. Lags in Vaccine Race https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/world/europe/eu-vaccines-germany.html
Solidarity Is Not an Easy Sell as E.U. Lags in Vaccine Race https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/world/europe/eu-vaccines-germany.html
Also recommend reading on the same broad topic:
From @DeutschJill https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-struggle-pfizer-biontech-astrazeneca/
From @bopanc & @laurnorman https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-europe-tripped-in-covid-19-vaccine-race-11612293218
For those interested in the liability debate around EU vax contracts, this was a smart thread by @spignal https://twitter.com/spignal/status/1356573189309149185?s=20
From @DeutschJill https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-struggle-pfizer-biontech-astrazeneca/
From @bopanc & @laurnorman https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-europe-tripped-in-covid-19-vaccine-race-11612293218
For those interested in the liability debate around EU vax contracts, this was a smart thread by @spignal https://twitter.com/spignal/status/1356573189309149185?s=20
On liability debate, a thought from @GuntramWolff:
This is a macro-risk ultimately, the state should be underwriting it. Relates to risk-aversion that held the Commission back, but oddly remains a point of pride among EU bureaucrats who negotiated vax contracts.
This is a macro-risk ultimately, the state should be underwriting it. Relates to risk-aversion that held the Commission back, but oddly remains a point of pride among EU bureaucrats who negotiated vax contracts.
At @nytimes we spent weeks reporting on the vaccine problems in EU, deploying by my count 8 reporters w/ different areas of expertise. We published a dozen or so stories touching on various aspects of the crisis.
Happy to answer questions if I can. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/world/europe/eu-vaccines-germany.html
Happy to answer questions if I can. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/08/world/europe/eu-vaccines-germany.html
