LONDON – Britain’s rapid Covid-19 vaccination program has taken a hit due to the delay in delivering millions of doses ordered from India, a setback that illustrates the fragility of global supplies and highlights fears that a way out of the pandemic could be hampered by the nationalism of the vaccine.
The news of a deficit that will delay the launch of the British vaccine came amid a fierce supply dispute between London and the European Union, and a veiled threat by the bloc to use “any tool” necessary to ensure that Europe receives its “fair share”. vaccines. ”
Although the death toll from Covid-19 in Britain now exceeds 125,000, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has overtaken the rest of Europe with a vaccination program that has already provided the first doses to more than 25 million people.
But that dizzying pace is expected to slow as a result of the delay in delivering about 4 million doses from India, underscoring the extent to which even successful vaccination programs are at the mercy of supply chains.
That delay, and a technical problem with a separate batch of 1.7 million doses from an undisclosed supplier, delayed plans to start vaccinating people under 50 by May, a month later than many expected.
Given the dizzying start of its vaccination program, the British government said it was confident of reaching the goal of reaching the most vulnerable people and all people over 50 by mid-April, and all adults by the end of July.
Still, on Thursday, there was a marked change in the tone of health secretary Matt Hancock, who on Wednesday put aside concerns about vaccine supplies.
“In the last week, we had a batch of 1.7 million doses delayed due to the need to re-test its stability,” Hancock told lawmakers without specifying the source of the doses, “and we have a delay in the scheduled arrival of the Serum Institute of India. “
In April, Britain will focus on completing vaccinations for people aged 50 and over and those with health problems, as well as administering a second injection to 12 million people who were the first to be treated. This is a priority because the second injection needs to be done 12 weeks after the first inoculation, said Hancock.
“The problem at the moment is that there is no spare capacity, every factory that could produce a vaccine is working around the clock, seven days a week to try to do this, but inevitably there are problems,” said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a foundation British charity and scientific adviser to the British government.
What should be avoided is “this idea of export control and nationalism”, said Professor Farrar. “Contracts need to be honored,” he added.
Maintaining that line seems increasingly difficult. Adar Poonawalla, executive director of the Serum Institute of India, told the BBC that his company was allowed to export 50 percent of the 95 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it produces.
“That said, the government wanted to increase its vaccination campaign, they needed the maximum volumes they could get from us,” he said. “And that is why I had to send a message to all of our partners, who were expecting more doses in these two or three months, that they would be experiencing some delays.”
In a statement, the company said that “five million doses were delivered a few weeks ago in the UK, and we will try to deliver more later, based on the current situation and the requirement of the government’s immunization program in India.”
At a news conference on Thursday, Johnson was careful not to criticize the Indian government, saying “it has not stopped any exports, there is a delay”, something he attributed to “various technical reasons”.
The scarcity of supply, he added, would not require any change in Britain’s cautious plan to gradually ease blocking restrictions in the coming months.
Closer to home, the British government is involved in a war of words with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive body of the 27 nations of the European Union, who said that although the bloc would allow much of its vaccine production to be exported, it sees little coming in the other direction, particularly from Britain.
“It is difficult to explain to our citizens why vaccines produced in the EU are going to other countries that are also producing vaccines, but almost nothing is coming back,” said Ms Von der Leyen, adding that Britain was “the country number one with regard to EU exports ”, with 10 million doses exported there in recent weeks.
Ms. Von der Leyen, who is facing harsh criticism for Europe’s slow vaccination campaign, said that in the past six weeks, the bloc has exported 41 million doses of vaccines to 33 countries. “But open roads run in both directions,” she said in what was a clear warning to Britain, calling for “reciprocity”.
To complicate the picture, 20 European nations have partially or completely stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine – some of which are produced in Britain – because of safety concerns.
Doubts about the AstraZeneca vaccine have proven to be a headache for authorities since they first appeared in Norway, after a small number of those who received the vaccine experienced blood clots.
Jeremy Hunt, a former British health secretary, criticized European politicians for the suspensions. It was “incredibly dangerous to threaten the supply of vaccines and components, alongside defaming their safety at the very moment when vaccines are the only way for the world to get out of our Covid straitjacket,” he said.
The European Medicines Agency, which regulates the drugs in the bloc, said on Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine is “safe and effective” and that its benefits far outweigh the risks.
European nations will individually decide whether to resume taking AstraZeneca and, at a news conference, Johnson said he hoped to receive the injection on Friday.
Jonathan Ashworth, who speaks on behalf of the opposition Labor Party on health issues, said in Parliament that he supported the vaccine, but that concerns about it should be addressed. He said he heard that “hundreds of people did not attend the appointments” in London “and we think that this is due to concerns and misinformation that circulate online”.
Professor Farrar said that it is important that each unusual event after a vaccination be investigated in a transparent manner, but added that he did not see “any evidence until the moment that would lead me to interrupt the vaccination program”, a step he called “ greater risk ”.
He also warned that despite the success of Britain’s vaccination efforts so far, the pandemic is far from over and that the country faces significant threats later this year.
“The big concern for me is autumn and winter,” he said, with an imminent question being whether children would be vaccinated to prevent a new wave of transmission in the fall.
“We cannot assume that we have already overcome this pandemic, and I have a major concern for the period from September to February 2022,” he said. “We need to prepare for this during the summer and we do not need to enter the bias of optimism in the summer of 2020.”
Monika Pronczuk contributed reporting from Brussels and Mujib Mashal from Delhi.