EU threatens UK with vaccine export ban (again)
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has threatened to block vaccine exports to the UK to ensure that “Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible.”
She said that “all options are on the table”, including triggering Article 122 – an obscure clause invoked only once before during the 1970s oil crisis – that would allow the EU to seize factories and tear up intellectual property rights.
According to von der Leyen, the EU had exported 41 million vaccine doses to 33 countries, some of which had blocked vaccines going the other way. She said the EU will evaluate whether to make exports conditional on reciprocity and whether to curb exports “to countries that have higher vaccination rates than us,” including the UK.
It’s worth noting that it isn’t the EU doing the exporting – it’s companies based in countries within the bloc which are exporting vaccines based on private contracts agreed with the purchasing countries.
Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, condemned the EU’s “brinkmanship” which might be expected of “less democratic regimes”.
It’s a sign of just how desperate the Commission has become that it’s willing to nuke the EU’s global reputation to secure its vaccine supply. The bloc’s woeful rollout is piling huge pressure on leaders to be seen to do something and act tough. Just 11 per cent of EU citizens are vaccinated compared to 40 per cent in the UK. As von der Leyen admitted: “We are in the crisis of the century”.
Procurement and production issues have meant that by June there will be a 180 million-jab shortfall in AstraZeneca deliveries to the EU. Von der Leyen said: “It is hard to explain to our citizens why vaccines produced in the EU are going to other countries that are also producing vaccines, while hardly anything is coming back.”
But the argument that the EU is being short-changed would have more force if the bloc was actually using the vaccines it already has. Of the 62.2 million Astra Zeneca vaccine doses already delivered to the EU, only 48 million have been used and more than half of the EU’s 15 million AstraZeneca doses are currently sat in storage, including 1.3 million in Germany and 912,000 in France.
On top of this, 17 EU countries have suspended using the AstraZeneca vaccine over blood clot concerns despite assurances from the EU’s medicines regulator, the EMA, that the benefits of having the vaccine outweigh the risks. Limiting exports at the same time seems disingenuous – like demanding your cake but not eating it. It’s little wonder international sympathy is in short supply.
Lumpy bump in the road
The EU’s ultimatum came as NHS England admits that injections for England’s under 50s will be delayed by a month because of a “significant reduction in supply”.
In a letter to health service chiefs, NHS bosses said that the vaccine taskforce, in charge of procuring doses, predicts the issue will last for four weeks from 29 March, and is due to reductions in “national inbound supplies”.
It’s a setback, but the wider outlook is rosy. More than 25 million people across the UK have now received a first dose of the vaccine – almost half the adult population.
Speaking at today’s Downing Street press conference, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, laid out the “real world implications” of the UK’s rapid vaccination programme, revealing that nine in ten over 70s now have Covid antibodies. He said the data explains why deaths are “falling so fast” – down by over a third in the last week alone.
He shared a chart showing that the vaccine reduces the chance of getting Covid by 60 per cent, of going to hospital with the disease by 80 per cent, and of dying by 85 per cent. He said: “The vaccine offers protection to you and it also offers protection to those around you”.
Hancock played down concerns over the supply problems, saying that vaccine supply is always “lumpy” and insisted the UK is on track to offer vaccines to everyone in priority groups one to nine by 15 April. See Olivia Gavoyannis below.
Rooting for Rutte
The Dutch have been casting their votes in national elections today with Mark Rutte, the incumbent prime minister, expected to emerge as the victor.
His government resigned in January after a child welfare fraud scandal tipped thousands into poverty. The Netherlands remains in its strictest lockdown to date, with anti-curfew riots raging across the country in recent weeks.
But the pandemic has been surprisingly kind to Rutte, whose ratings have stayed strong. He’s seen by many as a skilled managerial figure and a “normal” politician that has stabilised the Netherlands in a time of polarising rhetoric, and whose steady hand has helped to guide the country through the Covid crisis.
Polls predict Rutte’s centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy will win twice as many seats as the anticipated runner-up, the far-right Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, and that Rutte will return for a fourth term.
Rutte will need to form a coalition if he emerges victorious. He’ll have plenty of choice. A record 37 parties are competing in the election, with up to 15 of them expected to secure seats. Watch out for musical chairs.
Mattie Brignal,
News Editor