After a slow start, EU vaccination drive against Covid-19 picks up pace

Vaccinations are picking up pace in the European Union, a stunning turnaround after the bloc’s immunization drive stalled for months.

On average over the past week, nearly 3 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were being administered each day in the EU, a group of 27 nations, according to Our World in Data, a University of Oxford database. Adjusted for population, the rate is roughly equivalent to the number of shots given daily in the United States, where demand has been falling.

The EU vaccination campaign, marred by disruptions in supplies of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccines, pivoted last month to rely heavily on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Last month, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said Pfizer had agreed to an early shipment of doses that she said should probably allow the bloc to reach its goal of inoculating 70 per cent of adults by summer's end. The EU is also on the verge of announcing a deal with Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for 2022 and 2023 that will lock in 1.8 billion doses for boosters, variants and children’s vaccines.

Read | EU seals potential 1.8 billion-dose purchase of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines

The United States moved aggressively under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to procure millions of doses by funding and prodding vaccine production. But the EU, rather than partnering with drugmakers as the United States did, acted more like a customer than an investor.

“I think it is overdue that the EU has stepped up their vaccination campaign,” said Beate Kampmann, director of the Vaccine Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “I think in the context of the rate of deaths we’ve seen and new cases we’ve seen in the EU, it is absolutely vital that we get the vaccine to people there very, very quickly."

The EU’s increase underscores the global disparities in vaccination efforts.

About 83 per cent of Covid shots have been given in high- and upper-middle-income countries, while only 0.3 per cent of doses have been given in low-income countries. In North America, more than 30 per cent of people have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data. In Europe, the figure is nearly 24 per cent. In Africa, it’s slightly more than 1 per cent.

Experts warn that if the virus can run rampant in much of the world — untamed by vaccines — dangerous variants will continue to evolve and spread, threatening all countries.