The European Union wants to keep vaccines pr …

The delays in vaccine production and distribution against coronavirus has generated a lively controversy in the European Union, which is torn between maintaining a fair distribution of doses for all orlist those corresponding to their countries. The German Minister of Health was in favor of restrict exports of vaccines produced in the EU While from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, recalled that “Europe has invested billions to develop the first vaccines against covid-19”.

The controversy takes place in the middle of strong regrowth that crosses Europe, with the appearance of new strains, and while large laboratories suffer from delays in vaccine production.

Through videoconferencing, Von der Leyen stressed that companies “must keep their promises and honor their obligations”. The official recalled the enormous investments made by the European Union to “build research infrastructures and production facilities” with the aim of developing “a truly global common good”.

The block has signed pre-contracts for several laboratories to ensure more 2,000 million doses. Although the EU has sought mechanisms to achieve some sort of coordination in the national vaccination campaigns in the 27 countries of the bloc, it now faces the dilemma how to pursue the planned plans in the face of the delay in the distribution of the doses.

Until, The EU has already certified and authorized two vaccines – those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna- and intended to give the green light this week to AstraZeneca. However, problems with delays in dispensing Pfizer / BioNTech doses worsened after AstraZeneca also announced it would experience delays in deliveries.

These irregularities put the objective of adopting a centralized vaccination policy for the European Union, which as a block was responsible for negotiating with the laboratories. Last week, the EU announced that its target was to vaccinate 70 percent of adults until the end of summer, in August, something that, with the delays in vaccine deliveries, does not know if this will be possible.

In this context, German Health Minister Jens Spahn supported restricting vaccine exports against covid-19 produced in the European Union due to delivery delays. “Vaccines leaving the EU need a license so that at least we know what is produced and what leaves Europe. And if they leave Europe, there is a fair distribution,” Spahn said.

On the delays announced by the pharmaceutical AstraZeneca in the delivery of its vaccine in the EU, the minister declared that he could understand that “in a process as complex as the production of vaccines, there are sometimes problems”. However, it must “affect everyone fairly and equitably”.

In Great Britain, for example, no delay in supply is expected. It is not a question “of the EU first, but of Europe’s part, that is to say of the fair share”, he declared. Spahn noted that the EU had signed contracts with AstraZeneca and had already pre-funded building new production capacities.

The delays have also angered European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, who has proposed a “transparency mechanism” on vaccine exports outside the EU.

In this direction, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a “fair” distribution of vaccines. “The money is one thing and another is the availability of the vaccine in times of shortage and the important thing here is to have a fair distribution,” the German Chancellor told the Davos Forum, also by videoconference.