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EU insiders admitted that US President Joe Biden will not come to their rescue or help plug the dose deficit in member states. It’s the second time in as many days that Washington has refused to offer a helping hand, and it also refuses to lend 10 million Johnson & Johnson hits to the bloc. A senior EU official said: “The US told us there was no way it would ship AstraZeneca vaccines to the EU.”
Brussels has been struggling to secure vaccine supplies after AstraZeneca earlier this year halved the number of doses it will send to member states.
The Anglo-Swedish firm has offered to partially close the gap with vaccines produced outside the bloc, including in the United States.
A senior EU diplomat told the Reuters news agency that the bloc should not count on Washington’s exports “at this time.”
“Basically, the situation is such that any export is complicated, but there is a will to speak,” added the source.
The White House and AstraZeneca declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “Whatever the legal situation in the United States, we want to work on the ground with the United States to keep supply chains open.
“We are not going to give a detailed description of the discussions that are taking place with our American partners.”
The rejection follows the European Council President Charles Michel’s attack on the United States and Great Britain for having an “absolute ban” on the export of coronavirus vaccines.
Washington’s tough approach could jeopardize AstraZeneca’s offer to deliver 180 million doses to member states in the second quarter.
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US President Biden has insisted that his administration’s vaccination program will put Americans first.
Speaking on Wednesday, he then offered to send any leftover jabs overseas.
He said, “We’re going to start and make sure Americans are served first, but then we’ll try to help the rest of the world.
“If we have a surplus, we will share it with the rest of the world.
“I said we had to treat this like a war.”
The AstraZeneca puncture produced in Oxford is manufactured in a plant near Baltimore in the United States, which is listed in the EU contract as a “backup supply site”.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen discussed the vaccine campaign with President Biden last week.
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Meanwhile, at least seven EU countries have stopped vaccines with the AstraZeneca jab amid unfounded concerns about its safety.
Italy, Estonia, Denmark, Luxembourg, Latvia, Austria and Lithuania ignored the advice of EU regulators to go ahead with the ban.
They argued that a batch of a million doses delivered by AstraZeneca to 17 European capitals could have some cases of blood clots in people who have recently received the needle stick.
But the Netherlands and Sweden supported the jab by promising to continue to release the vaccine.
The Dutch drug board said: “Thrombosis and pulmonary embolism are not known side effects of the vaccine.”
“When large groups are vaccinated, you can expect such reports.”
The European Medicines Agency said: “Although a quality defect is considered unlikely at this stage, the quality of the batch is being investigated.
“The information available so far indicates that the number of thromboembolic events in vaccinated people is not greater than that observed in the general population.”
The European Commission said it was up to member states to make a decision, but urged them to follow the guidance of the EMA.
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