Why the press in Germany is beating on Macron for anti Covid vaccines
Why has the EU Commission purchased a quantity of Pfizer-BionTech vaccines that is proving insufficient? The theses of the German newspapers Der Spiegel and Bild Zeitung in the article by Tino Oldani for Italia Oggi
The pandemic emergency, on Tuesday 22 December, recorded an unprecedented number of deaths in Germany: 986. A surge that confirms the motivation of Angela Merkel's decision to impose a severe lockdown until mid-January. An unexpected scenario, to which most Germans are convinced that it can only be remedied with a mass vaccination, to be completed by next autumn. All the more so if we consider that the vaccine considered to be the most effective and safe so far, that of Pfizer-BionTech, was created in Germany by a couple of scientists, husband and wife, of Turkish origin. Unfortunately, as the German media denounce, leading Der Spiegel and Bild Zeitung , all this seems impossible, as the EU commission led by Ursula Von der Leyen, to which the task of booking vaccines for all 27 member countries has been delegated , bought a quantity of Pfizer-BionTech vaccines that is proving insufficient, especially for Germany. In this regard, an extensive report by the German weekly Der Spiegel launches a very serious accusation: "Under pressure from the French government", that is Emmanuel Macron, the EU Commission was forced to limit the purchase of doses of the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine to not to damage the Sanofi pharmaceutical group, which is still very late in developing the anti-Covid vaccine that it had undertaken to provide with a regular contract. In support of the accusation, Der Spiegel recalls that in recent months von der Leyen has signed five contracts with the major pharmaceutical companies in the world, reserving 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine for the entire European population, which counts 500 million. people. Compared to the total, however, at the moment the EU can count on the safe delivery in the coming months of the 300 million doses agreed with Pfizer-BionTech (with an option of another 80 million) and the 80 million doses of the Modern American.
Both of these vaccines have already been authorized in the United States, where the vaccination campaign immediately started, with the inoculation of both. Ditto in Great Britain, also hit hard by the virus. As for Europe, the German media openly speak of delay, underlining that Chancellor Angela Merkel has lobbied a lot for the EMA (European Medicines Agency) to bring the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine approval forward by one week, as it later happened. . And it will only be thanks to this intervention if the simultaneous vaccination campaign in EU countries will start on 27 December. A beginning, to tell the truth, little more than symbolic, considering that very limited quantities of the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine, still in production, have been delivered to the various countries. Italy, for example, is receiving, as a first delivery, just under 10 thousand doses, while the bulk of the supply will arrive only in the spring.
To this slow-motion delivery must be added the fact that the European Union will distribute the vaccines purchased on the basis of a particular distribution mechanism, for which Germany, out of 300 million Pfizer-BionTech doses purchased by the EU, will receive 55.8 millions. But because this vaccine requires a second dose 21 days apart, Germany, with a population of over 80 million, would need 140 million doses to achieve so-called herd immunity. An elementary calculation, which leads the weekly Der Spiegel to launch a very harsh accusation: "The European Union has bought few vaccines, late and from the wrong producers". Which, he adds, will not allow the pandemic to be brought back under control by next autumn, unless Germany breaks European solidarity by purchasing vaccine doses on its own.
Bild Zeitung also intervenes on this last point, revealing that the Merkel government is seriously considering ordering 30 million doses of Pfizer-BionTech vaccine on its own, which added to another contract with the American Moderna would bring the vaccination capacity in Germany at 136 million doses, a threshold very close to herd immunity. It goes without saying that the German media are in favor of an immediate choice of vaccination autonomy by Berlin, as the French Sanofi studies on the anti-Covid vaccine would be delayed by at least six months, as would the British-Swedish group. Astra Zeneca, with whom the EU has signed a contract.
As was to be expected, the EU Commission denied having limited the purchases of some vaccines to "wait" for Sanofi's, reiterating that it had chosen the most promising and advanced vaccines when they were still being studied. But although the German Von der Leyen is at the top of the EU Commission, the Der Spiegel investigation does not discount, and on the basis of reliable sources, he claims that the shortage of vaccines in Germany depended on the Commission's decision, "under the pressure from the French government ”to ensure Sanofi parity in vaccine purchase contracts, although this group was late, and still is. "Buying more from a German company didn't seem fair." A diplomatic way to censor yet another European interference by Macron, moreover on an issue such as the pandemic, which has a huge impact on German public opinion.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-la-stampa-in-germania-picchia-su-macron-per-i-vaccini-anti-covid/ on Sun, 27 Dec 2020 06:38:31 +0000.