EU rejects criticism for slow vaccine rollout across bloc

  European Commission defended its coronavirus vaccination strategy Monday amid growing criticism in member states about slow rollout of COVID-19 shots across region with 450 million inhabitants.

Vaccinations programs in 27 nation-bloc have gotten off to a slow start and some EU members have been quick to blame EU's executive arm for a perceived failure of delivering right amount of doses. In Finland, health authorities are reportedly unhappy that country only received about 40,000 doses in December, inste of 300,000 that were expected,

Facing a barr of questions on vaccines during a press conference, EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said main problem with deployment of vaccination programs “is an issue of production capacity, an issue that everybody is facing."

“We have actually signed contracts that would allow member states to get access to 2 billion doses, largely eugh to vaccinate whole of EU population," he said.

bloc has nearly 450 million people.

As part of its strategy, EU has sealed six vaccines contracts with Moderna, AstraZeneca, Safi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Pfizer-BioNTech and CureVac.

But only Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved for use so far in 27-nation bloc. EU’s health regulator is expected to decide on Wednesday wher to recommend authorizing Moderna vaccine.

Mamer also clarified role of commission in securing contracts with potential drug makers. He said commission did t directly buy doses of vaccines but “acted as an investor" to provide funding to pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines. goal was to speed up production capacities and research, with all EU nations free to decide how many doses y would buy from vaccine producers of ir choice.

“Ultimately, se vaccines have to be produced, delivered, and some of logistic chains involved are very sophisticated," Mamer said, insisting that vaccination programs have just started, and that big deliveries of doses are foreseen around April.

Asked why Commission did t buy more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Stefan de Keersmaecker, Commission's health policy spokesman, said “main philosophy was to diversify our portfolio, t to put all our eggs in one basket."

De Keersmaecker said contract with Moderna provides for an initial purchase of 80 million doses on behalf of all EU nations but that commission intends to use its option to request a furr 80 million doses once vaccine is approved.

With Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, commission has an option for an extra 100 million doses that will bring total to 300 million shots. Both vaccines require two shots to be fully effective.

(IM CREDITS:PTI)