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BRUSSELS – The European Union exported 25 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines produced on its territory last month to 31 countries around the world, with Britain and Canada being the main destinations, just as the bloc has seen its own supply drastically reduced by pharmaceutical companies, slowing vaccination efforts and stoking a political crisis at home.
The bloc – whose 27 countries are home to 450 million people – was criticized last week, when Italy used an export control mechanism to block a small shipment of vaccine to Australia. The move has been criticized as protectionist and in stark contrast to the European Union’s mantra of free markets and global solidarity in the face of the pandemic.
The issue of vaccine production and exports has also created a bitter dispute between the European Union and Britain, a recently resigned member, amid accusations the bloc wants to deprive the country of vaccine doses out of spite. , in part because Britain does so much. better with its deployment.
The tensions culminated in a diplomatic row on Wednesday after a senior EU official accused the US and Britain of instituting an ‘outright ban’ on exports – an accusation the UK government vehemently refuted.
In practice, ban or no ban, Britain does not export vaccines authorized for home use, and the country has said it would be prepared to give excessive doses to neighboring Ireland, but only after completing home vaccination efforts.
The United States has also retained the doses, in part through a war mechanism known as the Defense Production Act, which gives the federal government greater control over industrial production. President Biden promised last week that all American adults will be offered at least one dose of the vaccine by May.
But information made public for the first time, recorded in detailed internal documents viewed by the New York Times, shows that the European Union, far from being protectionist, is in fact a vaccine exporting power.
Of the 25 million doses of vaccine manufactured in EU-based facilities that were exported between February 1 (when the export mechanism went into effect) and March 1, more than eight million doses have gone in Great Britain.
And while the United States kept the doses to itself, the EU shipped 651,000 vaccines to the United States last month and made vaccines that have immunized its neighbors: the second largest recipient of vaccines manufactured in the United States. The EU was Canada, which last received over three million doses. months, while the fourth largest was Mexico, receiving nearly 2.5 million doses of vaccine produced in the block.
Disclosure of this data has been hotly debated in the corridors of power at the European Commission, the EU executive, which is at the heart of vaccine procurement and has suffered the biggest political blow due to the disappointing rollout. .
On the one hand, said several senior EU officials, revealing the immense export efforts that keep countries around the world vaccinated and helping restart the global economy would help restore Europe’s reputation. On the other hand, it would scandalize European citizens who await their shots as Americans, British, Israelis and others rush past them to resume public life, health and economic activity.
As it stands, nearly 58% of Israelis have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The figure is 33% for Britons, 18% for the United States and 6.5% of European Union residents, according to data collected by OurWorldInData.
The bloc was weeks behind the United States and Britain in making deals with drug companies last year, but secured a large portfolio of vaccines on favorable terms on behalf of its members. This gave them relatively quick access to the vaccination that most would not have dreamed of if they had acted alone.
But a few weeks after its deployment began at the end of December, the bloc began to experience supply shocks. First, Pfizer said it was cutting deliveries to modernize its facilities. Then AstraZeneca told the OR it would only deliver 31 million of the 80 million doses promised in the first quarter of this year.
Moderna, whose vaccine was also approved for block use, also had small supply issues. Many EU countries have also done a poor job of getting the vaccines they have to their citizens due to poor organization and logistics.
Deployment in the bloc has been so poor that member states have been tempted by black market offers of additional doses, and several are using unauthorized vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V, which is still in progress. review for use in the block.
The hope that these problems can be alleviated in the second quarter of this year largely depends on the resumption of supply from AstraZeneca and a robust delivery plan from Johnson & Johnson, whose Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be authorized Thursday by the European regulator.
Still, there are fears that Johnson & Johnson may also reduce the bloc’s supply, prompting the bloc to ask the US government for a loan of 10 million doses. Officials in the United States and the European Union said the request was denied.
Noah weiland contributed to the Washington report.
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