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France has backed Italy’s blocking of a shipment of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia, as Canberra urged Brussels to review Rome’s move to “break the rule book” in a sign of global tensions over vaccine supply.
“We could do the same,” Olivier Véran, France’s health minister, said in an interview on French television, in response to a question about Rome’s suspension of 250,000 doses of Oxford / AstraZeneca destined for Australia.
Italy’s move is the first intervention since the EU introduced rules for the transport of vaccines outside the bloc, which came in response to delays in the roll-out of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine in member states. The commission has the power to oppose the Italian decision, but did not do so, authorities said.
Rome said it had made the decision to hold the shipment because Australia was not considered a “vulnerable country”.
Jens Spahn, Germany’s health minister, took a more cautious tone on Friday. He said of the Italian measure: “With a measure like that, in the short term there is a victory, but we have to be careful that it does not cause us problems in the medium term by disrupting vaccine supply chains and all that. that’s necessary in terms of precursors. “
The suspension of shipping underscores the global race to secure vaccines, as drug manufacturers struggle to meet production targets and experience delivery delays. The EU has gotten off to a slower start than the US, Israel and the UK in vaccinating its citizens and is facing a further increase in infections in some parts of the bloc, including central Europe and France.
Canberra on Friday asked the European Commission to review Italy’s decision, while expressing sympathy for the situation in the EU.
“In Italy, people die at the rate of 300 a day,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. “Therefore, I can understand the high level of anxiety that would exist in Italy and in many European countries, as it is regularly transmitted to me. And so they have some real difficulties there. . . That is not the situation in Australia. “
Simon Birmingham, Australia’s finance minister, said: “The world is in uncharted territory today, it is not surprising that some countries break the rule book.” Birmingham also highlighted Australia’s success in containing Covid-19 compared to the desperation of other nations.
Canberra insisted the government would have “more than enough” vaccines to distribute until local production of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine begins in late March.
Greg Hunt, Australia’s health minister, said Canberra “had raised the issue with the European Commission through multiple channels.”
Analysts warned that Italy’s move threatened to inflame global tensions over the procurement of vaccines after EU allies opposed the introduction of an export regime.
Australia has handled the pandemic better than most developed nations and has only a handful of Covid-19 infections, nearly all in hotel quarantine. The country has begun vaccinating vulnerable people with the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine and on Friday administered its first inoculation with the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine.
Hassan Vally, an associate professor at La Trobe University, said Roma’s decision to block the vaccine was not unexpected.
“Problems with the procurement of vaccines for Australia were always a probability during the pandemic and were factored into the vaccine implementation plans,” Vally said. “It’s one of the reasons we signed deals to get a lot more vaccines than we needed and also why we take a diverse portfolio approach.”
Health experts in Australia said Italy’s move reflected a trend toward vaccine nationalism, adding that it was crucial for the Pacific country to maintain local manufacturing capacity.
“Underlines the importance of Australia having some level of independence in vaccine production through CSL [Australia’s biggest drugmaker]”Said Terry Nolan, head of vaccine and immunization research at the Doherty Institute and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
“It also reminds us that we do not have mRNA manufacturing capacity in Australia, and we urgently need to find ways to make that happen.”
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