Despite the fact that vaccination against COVID-19 in the European Union began in December, countries have failed to vaccinate a significant number of citizens in a coordinated manner. According to Our World in Data, Denmark (3.7 per 100 inhabitants), Slovenia (2.9) and Ireland (2.9) were among the leaders in the EU, which is considerably lower than the rates in, say, Israel (49.1) or the US (7.1).
The failure is primarily attributed to disruptions in the supply of vaccines. Recall that the European Commission, on behalf of the 27 EU countries, signed contracts with six manufacturers of vaccines against COVID-19:
BioNTech-Pfizer (U.S.-Germany),
AstraZeneca (Sweden – UK),
Sanofi-GSK (France – UK),
Johnson & Johnson (USA),
CureVac (Germany),
Moderna (USA).
The disruptions, in turn, are due to the EU’s long delay in procuring vaccines and getting them approved by regulators.
“In the U.K. and the U.S., regulators have granted emergency vaccine approval and have taken responsibility in case something goes wrong. In the EU, however, they insisted on going through all procedures as planned,” the analysts said. Therefore, the vaccination period in these countries began several weeks earlier than in the EU.
In addition, the vaccine producing companies had supply disruptions in Europe. This applies in particular to the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.