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The failure of the European Commission to guarantee the required amount of vaccine for European citizens it is too serious, say some EU leaders who are now seeking alternative supply options from China, Russia and Israel, the Daily Express commented.
Austria and Denmark announced on Monday that they would sign an agreement with the Israeli government for the supply and production of vaccines.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he has discussed the launch of the new vaccine with two European prime ministers who will meet with him this week.
They are pressuring France and Germany not to depend on the doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine
Authorities in Germany and France are under increasing pressure to find creative solutions.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Danish Prime Minister Mete Frederiksen are expected to arrive in Israel this week to see for themselves the rapid launch of vaccine production in Israel.
Netanyahu said the leaders would also discuss the idea of establishing an “international vaccine corporation.”
Sebastian Kurz told the German newspaper Bild that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was “too slow”approve vaccines for medical use.
“We should no longer rely solely on the EU to produce second-generation vaccines,” he said.
Slovakia also abandons the EU vaccination action plan and joined Hungary in its partnership with Vladimir Putin to the Russian vaccine “Sputnik V”.
The Eastern European health minister said the government had bought two million doses of the vaccine and was the second EU country to buy a vaccine that has not yet been approved by the EMA.
Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic met at Kosice airport on Monday the first shipment of the vaccine.
Igor Matovich said the Russian vaccine would allow the country to speed up its vaccination program by 40%.
Slovakia receives first batch of Sputnik V vaccine
The preparation will probably go live in mid-March.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, suffered another blow when the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, announced that he would buy vaccines from China.
The Czech Republic, with the highest weekly per capita infection rate, is also considering using a Russian vaccine. Earlier, it was said that Prague would still await approval for the use of the vaccine from the EU Medicines Agency EMA, which has not yet been requested by Russia.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said Sunday that the country could not wait any longer.
And another blow to the EU leadership was the announcement by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that he would change the country’s vaccination strategy to obtain as many primary vaccines as possible amid a rapidly spreading pandemic. In this way, the scope of vaccination will be broadened, which will provide at least some protection for the Hungarians.
Following the British approach to vaccines, Hungary’s chief physician, Cecilia Mueller, said she expected an increase in new coronavirus cases in the coming weeks, so Hungary would try to stretch shipments by prolong the period between the two doseskeeping the Hungarians safe.
Hungary is the first country in the European Union to allow and use vaccines from Russia and China, which worries its Western counterparts, but is contributing to the rapid increase in vaccine populations, as supplies now come from five manufacturers.
Victor Orban is immunized against COVID-19 with a Chinese vaccine
“I was vaccinated,” Orban wrote.
Hungary has also increased its order for Pfizer-Biotech vaccines to 10.87 million doses from a previous order of 6.5 million.
The country also ordered the delivery of vaccines from Moderna and AstraZeneca and hopes to order a single dose of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. as soon as it is available in the EU.
The new vaccination approach means a difference of 12 weeks between AstraZeneca doses and 35 days between Pfizer doses, as in the UK.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi at last week’s EU Council summit also called on EU leaders to follow the British approach on vaccines.
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