The UK also got lucky the Oxford jab actually turned out being very effective. If both GSK and Oxford had failed delivering a viable vaccine, the UK would have

The UK also got lucky the Oxford jab actually turned out being very effective. If both GSK and Oxford had failed delivering a viable vaccine, the UK would have had to scramble for Pfizer against the US, the EU and the rest of the world. Let's all remember the UK still hasn't approved either Moderna or J&J, so their success has been basically all thanks to AstraZeneca providing them a constant supply of doses from their UK factories. They played their cards well, and luck rewarded them. The EU commission played safe by placing (with too much delay) orders on lots and lots of vaccines, but only a handful of them turned out being ready for shipment on December. If Sanofi had something ready months ago, this whole situation would have been very different. Let me also point out that outside the USA and the UK, both of which are manufacturing countries themselves, and Israel, which accepted to become Pfizer's guinea pig, no other Western country has had a good time at sourcing vaccines. Canada, Australia, even Switzerland (which is filthy rich) all have way less doses available than the EU does, right now. Also, it's important to remember that the EU scheme allowed less influential nations to actually get hold of vaccines. Without the current scheme Germany and France would most likely have had enough leverage and resources to quickly gobble up the entire available stock of Pfizer and Moderna available for the European market, leaving Eastern and Southern Europe with only the breadcrumbs. The internecine fight that could have ensued would have caused irreparable damage to European integration, throwing the EU countries into deep recession and definitely helped Russia a lot. It's unfortunate the EU commission didn't do a better job, but I think the EU countries knew very well that the Commission has zero experience in this area, and deliberately chose what was simply the less risky long term solution.