The failure of the EU vaccine is because it has not “shot to the stars,” says Macron

PARIS (Reuters) – European leaders did not realize that COVID-19 vaccines would be developed as soon as they were, which is why EU implementations lagged behind some other countries, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview broadcast Wednesday -market.

“Everyone, all the experts said: never in the history of mankind has a vaccine been developed in less than a year,” Macron told Greek television channel ERT.

“We don’t aim for the stars. This should be a lesson for all of us. We made mistakes in not having ambition, in not having the madness, I would say, in saying: it is possible, let’s do it ”, said Macron, in a rare admission of failure in the pandemic.

European Union leaders are struggling to speed up vaccines, behind countries like Britain and the United States and facing delays in supply.

Macron himself was criticized at home for a faltering implementation, which was slowed down by bureaucracy and public distrust of vaccines.

“We didn’t think it would happen so quickly … You can give it to the Americans, already in the summer of 2020 they said: we will pull all the obstacles and do it,” said Macron.

“As far as we are concerned, we were not fast enough, we were not strong enough in that. We think that vaccines would take time to take off. “

The EU stepped up its oversight of coronavirus vaccine exports on Wednesday, giving it greater leeway to block shipments to countries with higher inoculation rates, such as Britain, or who do not share the doses that produce.