EU begins vaccine rollout with goal of inoculating 450 million against COVID-19

The European Union launched a mass vaccination campaign on Sunday to ultimately inoculate some 450 million people in 27 member states against COVID-19.

EU leaders have negotiated contracts for more than 2 billion doses of the vaccine from various suppliers. The first 200 million doses come from the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, which was co-developed by a husband-and-wife team in Mainz, Germany.

In Greece, the first winner was Efstathia Kampisiouli, intensive care nurse from Athens. Greek TV channels broadcast the vaccination. Kampisiouli, dressed in blue scrubs and a mask, raised her thumb as a masked colleague stuck a needle into her arm. Everyone applauds.

A resident of a retirement home followed, then Greek politicians, including Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

“Science gave us the best Christmas present,” she told reporters.

Similar scenes were unfolding across the EU, where more than 350,000 people died from COVID-19. The hardest-hit country has been Italy, which has recorded more than 70,000 coronavirus deaths. Three health workers were the first to receive the vaccine there. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio urged Italians to get vaccinated.

“The covid vaccine is the only weapon we have to stop the virus,” Di Maio wrote on Facebook. “Slowly our freedom will return.”

The Netherlands-based European Medicines Agency switched on the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on December 21. The first batch of vaccines was delivered on Saturday.

Although the vaccine was developed in Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, the US, UK and Saudi Arabia all received it before the EU.

German magazine Der Spiegel accused the EU of dragging its feet and haggling over prices. EMA director Emer Cooke told Euronews the agency was doing its due diligence to protect taxpayers from liability and “to make sure we haven’t missed anything.”

EU leaders wanted the 27 member states to start vaccinations on Sunday to show their unity. In a tweet on Saturday, The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the synchronized deployment a “European success”.

But some countries could not wait. Residents of nursing homes in northeastern Germany were vaccinated on Saturday – including Gertrude Haase, 101 years old. Hungary and Slovakia also started a day earlier.

In the Netherlands, logistical and bureaucratic problems have delayed the start of vaccinations until January 8.

The EU hopes to vaccinate residents of the 27 member states by the end of next year. Brussels has also secured doses of the vaccine for non-EU countries – notably Iceland and Norway. EU contributions to the COVAX international vaccination initiative will also mean that Kosovo – one of the poorest countries in Europe – will receive at least 300,000 doses of COVID vaccine.

The start of the vaccine rollout in the EU comes at a time when a more infectious variant of COVID-19 has spread across the UK, which officially leaves the EU at midnight on December 31. This strain has also been detected in several EU countries, including Ireland, France and Sweden. Vaccine developers, including BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, say they expect their vaccines to work against the coronavirus mutations.

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