Criticism of the sluggish start: This is what Europe's strategy for vaccine purchase looked like

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The criticism of the sluggish vaccination start in this country was clear.

Germany is “much worse off than other countries”, complained about SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”.

He emphasized that the joint procurement of the corona vaccine at EU level was correct.

"But Europe doesn't have to automatically mean slower."

The federal government defended its decision to procure the vaccine at European level.

"We are convinced that this was and is the right way," said government spokesman Steffen Seibert in Berlin.

Berlin stands by this "fundamental decision".

European cohesion has proven to be important, especially during the pandemic.

WELT answers the most important questions about vaccination start in Europe and classifies the criticism.

Is there also criticism of the joint procurement of vaccines in other EU countries?

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The debate has so far been conducted primarily in Germany, where 240,000 people were vaccinated by the weekend.

So far, only 700 people have been vaccinated in Belgium and almost 600 people in France, and practically none in the Netherlands.

In these countries, Germany is seen as a role model when it comes to vaccinations, and distribution across the EU is not a big issue.

There is no loud criticism of the European course in Italy either.

Would more Germans have been vaccinated if Berlin had organized vaccine purchasing nationally?

That cannot be said with certainty, but it is possible that national solo efforts and earlier purchase of the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer, which were first approved in the EU, could have increased vaccination rates in Germany, especially in the first few weeks.

However, the difference would not have been particularly great, since Biontech and Pfizer were only able to produce 50 million vaccine doses worldwide by the end of the year.

In addition: The EU partners would have accused Berlin of being selfish if it went it alone, and possibly revived old resentments.

Source: Getty;

Infographic WORLD

The distribution of the vaccine across the EU - with the European Commission negotiating and all 27 heads of state and government approving the results - means that smaller countries can now get vaccines on the same terms as Germany or France.

Otherwise they would have ended up temporarily empty because they do not have such strong bargaining power.

Because of the close economic ties in Europe, a real problem could have arisen for Germany if numerous neighboring countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium or Austria had significantly higher infection rates for months due to a lack of vaccines.

What was the EU strategy for purchasing vaccines?

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First:

All EU countries should be treated equally, no country should be disadvantaged because of its smaller population or lower economic power.

A race between EU countries for the vaccine should be prevented.

The first steps to this were already in the early summer, especially since US President Donald Trump had announced an aggressive purchasing strategy on the world markets.

"Unfortunately, the parallel approach of the alliance raised concerns," wrote the health ministers of four

Member States in June to the EU Commission, as the "Bild" newspaper reported.

Under pressure from Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, the ministers of Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands asked the authorities to take over the negotiations for everyone.

Chaos and a shortage of vaccines - the federal government has come under massive criticism

The debate in Germany about vaccinating against Corona is getting more and more heated.

Both the Chancellor and Health Minister Spahn are criticized for this from all sides.

Source: WELT / Christoph Hipp

Second:

Brussels wanted risk diversification.

Large, established vaccine manufacturers like Sanofi-GSK, but also innovative newcomers like Moderna and Biontech were selected.

According to the Munich virology professor Gerd Sutter, it was not yet clear which vaccine would be most effective until autumn.

The EU secured a total of around two billion vaccine doses: up to 405 million doses from the Tübingen company CureVac, 400 million doses each from the British-Swedish company Astra Zeneca and from the US manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, and up to 300 million doses each from Biontech / Pfizer and from the French manufacturer Sanofi-GSK and 160 million cans from the US manufacturer Moderna.

Why did the EU order the Bionetch / Pfizer vaccine so late?

The EU had already signed contracts with Astra Zeneca and Sanofi-GSK at the end of August and mid-September.

The contract with Biontech / Pfizer, however, was only concluded on November 11th.

By then America had already secured twice as many doses of vaccine.

However, the Americans paid a purchase price almost twice as high for it.

The EU's negotiations with Biontech / Pfizer had dragged on for so long, particularly because of the question of liability.

Peter Liese, CDU health expert in the EU Parliament, who accompanied the negotiations intensively, told WELT: “The American lawyers at Pfizer had obviously tried repeatedly in the negotiations to be exempt from liability for medical consequential damage, even if that was the case Company makes a mistake.

The EU Commission, the European Parliament and the member states could not allow that. "

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In addition to liability, the price also played a role from Brussels' point of view: the vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer costs 12.00 euros per can, almost seven times as much as the vaccine from Astra Zeneca (1.78 euros).

From the outset, the EU Commission was under strong pressure from some Eastern European member states, but also from parliament: In addition to the Social Democrats and Greens, large parts of the conservative majority faction EPP repeatedly warned against excessive costs when purchasing the vaccine.

Markus Ferber, the influential CSU economic expert in the EU Parliament, said, for example, after the contract with Biontech / Pfizer was signed at the end of November in “Die Zeit”: “A number of manufacturers have presented vaccines ready for approval within a short period of time.

We can and must weigh up and choose with regard to price, quality and storage costs. ”A third reason for the hesitation at Biontech / Pfizer was that the new mRNA vaccines also required complex logistics at a cooling temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius .

Did the EU make mistakes?

Yes.

The EU should have had more courage in August and order up to 200 million additional doses of vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer.

Because it was already becoming apparent at the time that Biontech and Pfizer would develop a very potent vaccine.

But in hindsight you are of course always smarter.

The vaccine candidates and their methods at a glance

The first is already here, and more will follow: a total of six vaccines could receive EU approval in 2021.

An international comparison also shows how Germany is lagging behind when it comes to vaccination.

Source: WORLD

However, a higher order from Biontech / Pfizer in August would probably not have resulted in a higher vaccination rate in Europe until February or March.

The EU had apparently hoped that the significantly cheaper Astra Zeneca vaccine would be the first to hit the market.

The lower effectiveness and the later marketability of this product only became clear in the course of December.

Why was so little ordered of the highly effective vaccine from the US company Moderna and so much of the possibly ineffective Sanofi vaccine?

In the case of Moderna, there were two reasons for this decision: The EU absolutely wanted the vaccine to be produced in Europe because it was believed possible that Trump would ban the export of US vaccines.

However, Moderna only had limited capacity for production in Europe.

In addition, the vaccine was by far the most expensive at almost 15 euros per unit.

Sanofi, on the other hand, was relatively cheap at 7.56 euros.

In addition, the company uses a less risky, traditional active ingredient principle in its vaccine.

In addition, the government in Paris campaigned for Sanofi, just as Berlin fought for the German companies Biontech and CureVac.

When will all EU citizens be vaccinated?

Immunization of EU citizens willing to vaccinate will likely take until the middle of the year.

New vaccines will soon be approved, and Biontech / Pfizer also plans to further increase production capacities.

"In addition, one ampoule of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine will soon be able to carry out six instead of five vaccinations - that's 20 percent more capacity," said EU health expert Liese.

The light at the end of the tunnel gets a little brighter every day.