Last week, Italy blocked the export of 250,700 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 to Australia. This is the execution of its threat against the Anglo-Swedish laboratory, which announced last January that it could only deliver part of the expected doses to the European Union during the first quarter of the year.
A strategy approved by the European Union
After AstraZeneca’s announcement last January, the Europeans set up a vaccine export control mechanism to ensure that laboratories do not market to others doses that should have been delivered to them. This new device had never been used before. Indeed, of all the authorization requests filed during the first three months of the year, none had been refused. However, these requests only concerned small quantities of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Read alsoThe fight for women’s rights does not last a day
For its part, the European Union has not raised any objections to counter the decision taken by Rome. In France, this strategy has even been welcomed by the government. ” Of course that’s a way to put pressure. Italy has done well to block these deliveries. We enforce a contract and we use all the levers at our disposal », Declared the Minister of Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
—
– Ascannio / Shutterstock.com
–
Distribute vaccines in order of priority
A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to give details of the delay in the delivery of AstraZeneca, as well as the progress of the vaccination campaign in Europe during the second quarter of the year. The latter simply said that the Commission had entered into talks with the laboratory to ensure that it honored its commitments on time.
For its part, the Australian government has declared that it understands the decision taken by the Italian government. ” In Italy, people are dying at the rate of 300 a day. So I can understand the high level of concern that exists in Italy and in many countries in Europe. They are in a crisis situation. This is not the case in Australia Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, stressing that this vaccine shipment was not one the country was counting on.
Read alsoThe famous toy brand Monsieur Patate will no longer be gendered
Indeed, the situation is more alarming in Italy, where there are on average 18,600 new cases and 286 daily deaths. In comparison, Australia records very few new cases and no deaths per day.
:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/ff232d04-802a-11eb-b01a-02d2fb1aa1d7.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
