Germany buys 30 million additional vaccines in the EU, Italy does not

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The first phase of the anti-Covid vaccination campaign is launched in Italy. The US giant Pfizer has confirmed that the first 469,950 doses of the vaccine developed together with the German Biontech will arrive in Italy as of Tuesday, December 29, adding to the 9,750 already arrived in Italy for the day-vax December 27. The delivery, carried out by the company in the first 203 administration sites indicated by the extraordinary commissioner Domenico Arcuri in agreement with the Regions, will continue tomorrow and December 31. All confident in the weather, given that the frost that hits the Peninsula runs the risk of slipping the announced calendar. Regions like Liguria and Piedmont have already reported the delay.

The vaccination plan starts after the controversy that arose due to a news that the German newspaper already gave image before Christmas and again stood out on the days of the vaccination days of December 27, 28 and 29: Germany has secured an additional quota of 30 million doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine, the first to be distributed in the EU following the green light from the European Medicines Agency before Christmas. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the Executive at a press conference in Berlin, underlining how the “bilateral” request for a 30 million share was already known, which would be added to the more than 55 million already insured by Brussels.

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Italy without reservation “package”

An election, that of the German government, which raises more than one question. Including the certainty of having enough doses to vaccinate the population since at the moment the only authorized vaccine is that of Pfizer-Biontech, which will soon be followed by Moderna while the approval for the other manufacturers is not yet planned. And this could significantly lengthen the time to achieve herd immunity. Italy has not contracted any reservation “package” at the moment.

In the first quarter, Pfizer will supply 8.7 million doses, in addition to 1.3 million Moderna, which will be authorized on January 6. But more than 16 million in the first quarter alone should be guaranteed by AstraZeneca, whose authorization has not yet been scheduled. So what if these 16 million doses are not available in March, to which another 24 million must be added in the following quarter? Arcuri confirmed in recent days that the EU is negotiating an additional supply of the Pfizer vaccine. For Italy it would translate into an additional 13.8 million doses. Moderna would instead provide another 10.8 million doses, always additional. But nothing is said about the delivery times of these new supplies. That is why the fear of a delay in the vaccination campaign is real.

“Additional fee” for Germany

A risk that the German government has decided not to run, negotiating those 30 million more doses on its own. At European level, Germany is the first and, for now, the only Member State that has formalized an extra agreement regarding the quota mechanism established by Brussels for the distribution of the approximately 2 billion drugs reserved so far: 300 million per Pfizer-Biontech, 400 million from AstraZeneca, 300 million from Sanofi-GSK, 400 million from Johnson & Johnson, 405 million from CureVac and 160 million doses of Moderna, plus another 200 million at stake in negotiations with Novavax. Each country, the Commission said, will have access to individual drug quotas “according to the size of its population.” The mechanism, as the Ministry of Health also recalled, ensures that Italy (around 60 million inhabitants) has the right to a 13.46% share of each vaccine supply. On the other hand, Germany (around 83 million inhabitants) has access to 18.6% of the doses of the different inputs, earning an average of 670 thousand weekly doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine. The additional fee obviously increases the firepower for coverage: according to an estimate reported by the German press, Germany can count on 136.8 million vaccines as of January.