Fighting vaccines against the defeat of Europe – WSJ

Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom have orders or options for approximately the same number of doses per capita. But the United States and the United Kingdom moved faster to get contracts, making it easier for pharmaceutical companies to prepare. Washington and London also invested seven times more in development, production and acquisition per person, according to British analytics firm Airfinity. Some U.S. states face distribution challenges like many European countries, but U.S. and British regulators approved vaccines faster than their EU counterparts.

The results are already clear. By our deadline Thursday, the UK had administered doses to more than 11% of residents, while the United States was approaching 8%. Denmark was a European success story with 3.7%, while France and Sweden collapsed around 2%.

This has not inspired much reflection in Brussels. EU mandarins spent this week warning AstraZeneca after the firm announced that problems with the production of a European factory meant it would deliver tens of millions of doses less than expected this quarter. The European Commission on Wednesday ordered a raid on the AstraZeneca production site in Belgium.

“At the time, Europe wanted to supply itself more or less at the same time as the UK, although the contract was signed three months later,” Pascal Soriot, head of AstraZeneca, told an Italian newspaper this week. “So we said, ‘Okay, we’ll do our best, we’ll try, but we can’t contractually commit because we’re three months away from the UK.’

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the contract requires vaccines to be diverted from UK factories in Europe. The company should publish the agreement and let the public judge tell the truth. But this ugly episode is a good announcement of Brexit.

By the way, London gave its approval to the AstraZeneca vaccine in December. German officials decided on Thursday that the vaccine should not be given to people over the age of 64 and an EU decision is not expected until Friday.

Brussels will soon give national governments the power to block the export of millions of doses of vaccines from Europe. These restrictions will no doubt be reduced, as other countries retaliate against Europe and complex supply chains fall apart.

Brussels is demonstrating its unique talent for shooting itself by transforming its crisis of vaccine incompetence into deeper economic damage. The EU’s key challenge after the pandemic reduction will be to revive economic growth despite decades of political mismanagement. Still, nothing says “closed to business” like harassing companies that offer life-saving medical treatments.