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The Biontech vaccine has actually been approved and distributed in the EU a couple of days ago. But the EU seems to have done a bad job on procurement, and vacc
by morsch 6y ago
The Biontech vaccine has actually been approved and distributed in the EU a couple of days ago. But the EU seems to have done a bad job on procurement, and vaccination will take longer as a result, with general availability in the summer, if and only if the AZ vaccine is approved.
It's a disaster and I'm pretty sure unless they can conjure up a solution, there will be a public outcry. But the EU and its members are pretty good at disavowing responsibility to one another when something bad happens.
- the_mitsuhiko 6y agoWhat exactly is the disaster? The only holdup was that the EU countries did not want to use emergency use approvals so there is only a single approval so far (Pfizer). The procurement seems okay. Austria where I am has orders from Pfizer until end of Q2 for 25% of the population alone.
- morsch 6y agoI don't have an issue with the approval process itself. But Isreal, for example, expects delivery of enough doses to vaccinate 60% by the end of Q1. They just ordered more. We didn't. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/israel-impfungen-coronavirus-101.html https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/israel-impfungen-coronavir...
- the_mitsuhiko 6y agoIsrael bet on two vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer), the EU bet on 4. In particular many EU countries (like Austria and others) were hoping for non mRNA vaccines to be approved faster because they would be significantly easier to handle. We purposefully did not "order more" at the time it was offered since that was before approval. EU countries have been extending their orders after the approval went through to bridge the time until other vaccines become an option. The EU in total ordered four times as much vaccines as we need.
- morsch 6y agoNot sure who is downvoting you, that's how I understand things as well. I suppose whether that qualifies as a disaster is a matter of opinion.