Vaccination operations are accelerating in the European Union, a stunning shift after months of the EU’s immunization campaign being halted.
On average over the past week, nearly three million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were given daily in the European Union, a group of 27 countries, according to Our World in Data, Oxford University database. Adjusted for population, the rate is roughly equivalent to the number of shots given each day in the United States of AmericaWhere the demand decreases.
The vaccination campaign in the European Union, Marred by turmoil In AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 Vaccine Supplies, Pivoted last month High reliance on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Last month, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said so Pfizer It agreed to an early shipment of doses that it said would likely allow the cluster to reach its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults by the end of the summer. The European Union is also about to announce a deal with Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for the years 2022 and 2023 that will secure 1.8 billion doses of enhancers, variants and childhood vaccines.
The United States has moved aggressively as part of the Trump administration’s Warp Speed ​​operation to purchase millions of doses by financing and stimulating vaccine production. But the European Union, instead of partnering with pharmaceutical companies like the United States did, was behaving like this Client From an investor.
“I think it is too late that the European Union stepped up its vaccination campaign,” said Pete Campman, director of the Vaccine Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
She added: “I think that in the context of the death rate that we have seen and the new cases that we have seen in the European Union, it is very important that we get the vaccine to people there very, very quickly.”
The increase in the European Union underscores the global disparities in vaccination efforts.
About 83 percent of the Covid injections were given High-middle and upper-income countries, While only 0.3 percent of the doses were administered Low-income countries. In North America, more than 30 percent of people have received at least one dose, according to Our world in data. In Europe, the figure is close to 24%. In Africa, it’s just over 1 percent.
Experts warn that if the virus can spread to most parts of the world, not infected by vaccines, dangerous variants will continue to evolve and spread, threatening all countries.
Last week, the Biden administration said it supported Assignment of intellectual property protection For covid Vaccines, Which will need WTO approval. Until then, Experts He warned that pharmaceutical companies around the world will need technological help to make vaccines and time to increase production.
European leaders such as Ms. von der Leyen W. President Emmanuel Macron made it clear that they believed President Biden should take a different approach, and instead lift export restrictions on vaccines, which the United States used to keep most doses for use domestically. “We call on all vaccine producing countries to allow exports and avoid measures that disrupt supply chains,” Ms. von der Leyen said in a speech last week.
Not at all, said Dr. Thomas Tsai, a professor who researches health policy at Harvard University. “What we really need is a comprehensive approach,” he said. He said waiving patents is a big, long-term step, but lifting the ban on exports would provide help sooner.
“There is a need to move towards a more comprehensive strategy” in vaccinating the world, said Dr. Tsai. “We need the same kind of commitment as Warp Speed. It’s an investment.”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administration’s chief adviser on Covid-19, said Sunday that the United States and other countries, as well as vaccine manufacturers, especially need help tackling the crisis right now in India, where there are less than 10 percent of the population. Worms have been at least partially vaccinated as the country battles a devastating virus wave.
“Other countries need to participate in order to be able to get supplies to the Indians to make their own vaccines or donate the vaccines,” said Dr Fauci on ABC’s This Week program. “One way to do that is to have the big companies that have the capacity to manufacture vaccines to really scale up massively, to actually get hundreds of millions of doses so you can get them.”
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