The vaccine war between the EU and AstraZeneca …

The triangle between the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom and AstraZeneca threatens to derail the fight against the coronavirus. The announcement of shortages in the production of the Anglo-Swedish drug, added to the delays of the American-German Pfizer-BioNTech, left on the web the plans of the EU to cover the 27 members of the bloc by mid -summer. The EU’s response was quick to come. On Friday, he announced a vaccine export control mechanism which in turn opens a question mark over Boris Johnson’s ambitious plan to achieve collective immunity (70% of the population vaccinated) in July.

AstraZeneca’s announcement on January 22, a week after Pfizer admitted there would be supply delays, opened Pandora’s box. The EU was far behind with its vaccination program which now reaches two doses per 100 people compared to nearly eleven per 100 in the United Kingdom. In addition to this European operational and logistical delay, there is a drain in the basic input production chain. Instead of the 100 million vaccines promised, AstraZeneca estimates a delivery of around 31 million doses by the end of March.

The announcement by the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company generated a chain reaction from different levels of the EU and different countries in the bloc. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that the contract with the pharmaceutical company “is very clear” and that they will not sit idly by. “The contract fixes the deadlines and the production centers. These are binding orders, not optional, ”said van der Leyen. Italy has announced that it will take legal action against the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company.

In addition to this rhetoric escalation this week, there are concrete measures targeting AstraZeneca and the former European partner, the United Kingdom. On Friday, the EU authorized emergency measures that include a potential block to the export of vaccines. On Wednesday, the Belgian Ministry of Health carried out an inspection of the AstraZeneca factory in Seneffe, 40 kilometers south of Brussels, to ensure that “the delivery problems are indeed due to production difficulties in the Belgian factory “.

The result of the inspection is expected next week, but the reasons given point to a suspicion of collusion between the pharmaceutical company and the United Kingdom to favor the British in the face of an insufficient supply. In an interview with the British newspaper “The Guardian” published this Saturday, President Emmanuel Macron justified the need for export controls for the “questionable behavior” of AstraZeneca. “Due to this questionable behavior, we are receiving less dose than what was promised in the contract,” Macron said. In the midst of the storm, the pharmaceutical company had ensured that deliveries to the United Kingdom, or about two million vaccines per week, were not affected by the announced restrictions on European supplies. According to AstraZeneca, this difference in deliveries was due to contractual problems. “We reached an agreement with the UK in June, three months earlier than with Europe. Of course, the UK government believes that the supply from its factories should first cover the UK, ”said Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides of Cyprus replied that vaccine production was not run like a neighborhood butcher’s shop where whoever arrives first is treated before others. “There are no priorities in the contract we signed. There is also no hierarchy regarding the four existing factories, two located in the European Union, the other two in the United Kingdom, ”Kyriakides said. In other words, if there is a shortage in one of the four factories – in this case one in the EU – the difference must be covered by the others.

In the UK, they don’t want to know anything about this interpretation of disorder. “We are going to make sure our immunization program goes as planned,” said Prime Minister’s Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove.

Brexit or war by other means

This tension comes on top of the friction created by the UK’s exit from the EU, which took place on December 31 after more than four very long years of negotiations. Customs issues, complaints from Britain’s small fishing industry and gigantic financial sector, the devastating impact on small and medium-sized businesses starting to settle on the continent to survive, are the subject of public debate, l visible balance of these first four Brexit weeks.

A blockade of vaccine exports would be an exponential leap, a declaration of hostilities because of the disaster it could engender in the British vaccination program. The UK has acquired 40 million doses of Pfizer, but the plant is in Belgium. With the export control announced by the EU, the pharmaceutical company will have to apply for an authorization to make the next deliveries. A delay or denial of the export permit would be a major blow for a country threatened for weeks by the overflow of hospital capacities and the skyrocketing of cases due to the British tension.

Diplomatic tension reignites fiery Brexit rhetoric. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the sectors that led to the exit from the European Union seek to present the successful British vaccination program as proof of the benefits of an independent European policy. For his part, in his interview with “The Guardian”, Macron warned the Johnson government that it had to decide who its allies are. “There is no such thing as a ‘half-friend’. The United Kingdom cannot be the United States’ best ally, the European Union and Europe’s new Singapore. You have to choose a model ”, declared the French president.

The UK has the most advanced inoculation program in Europe, the third in the world: over seven million vaccines, 13% of its population. But it is also by far the highest number of deaths: more than 100,000, as Boris Johnson admitted on Wednesday, around 120,000 if we add to this official count, that of the National Statistics Office ( ONS).

Meanwhile, on the European continent, the suspension or slowing down of vaccination programs by Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Romania, among others, was announced this week. The tension is burning in societies blasé by the pandemic which see disappear before their eyes the dream ticket: the vaccine. The Netherlands was engulfed for three consecutive nights by riots over curfews.

In this powder magazine there is, surprisingly, positive news for Argentina and Latin America. One of AstraZeneca’s arguments is that its vaccine production chains do not operate holistically but independently: factories in Belgium supply the EU, UK production sites supply the UK, etc. “Each chain has been developed with the production and investment of different countries and international organizations on the basis of the agreements concluded with each of them. As each chain has been assembled according to the needs specified in each agreement, the vaccine produced from a specific chain serves these countries and is manufactured with domestic production, ”said a spokesperson for AstraZeneca. In this logic, the 250 million vaccines for the region which are produced by Argentina and Mexico go through separate elevators and will not be affected by the Anglo-European disorder.