well the european union is demanding
answers over the millions of
undelivered doses of the coronavirus
vaccine that it ordered
the chief executive of drug maker
astrazeneca said the eu's late decision
to sign a contract to supply the vaccine
meant that there were still glitches to
be smoothed out in its production
process
but all 27 eu countries are facing heat
for a slow rollout
and politicians are asking whether
vaccines produced within the eu
are going to hire bidders outside the
block
talks and more talks have done little to
lessen the eu's anger at astrazeneca
european officials say the firm has
failed to adequately explain
why it was slashing its vaccine
deliveries to the eu
europe invested billions to help develop
the world's first covet 19 vaccines
to create a truly global common good
and now the companies must deliver
they must honor their obligations
astrazeneca's delivery cuts are the
latest setback to eu plans to vaccinate
70
of adults by summer earlier this month
pfizer said
it would temporarily reduce its
deliveries to the eu
as well citing production issues
but uk health officials say they expect
to have enough supply
to meet the country's vaccination
targets that reality
is fueling tensions
i think the thing to do now is not to
you know
go down the the sort of the dead end of
vaccine nationalism it's to work
together to make sure that we protect
our people that's my priorities to
protect the british people
to protect the united kingdom but also
to protect the whole world because no
one is safe until we're all safe
but divisions over how to fairly
distribute vaccines
will likely persist in the near term
south africa's president
lashed out at wealthy countries accusing
them of buying up the global vaccine
supply
now rich countries in the world are
holding onto these vaccines and we are
saying
release the excess vaccines
that you have you have ordered and and
hoarded
south africa still needs to secure 14
million more doses to accomplish its
vaccination goals
by contrast the eu uk and the us
have signed contracts with drug makers
to acquire more than 200 times that
amount
all right europe's supply shock to talk
about that i'm joined tonight by rachel
silverman she's a policy
fellow at the center for global
development she specializes in
global health policy rachel it's good to
see you again i remember last november
you calculated that the world's wealthy
countries had snapped up almost all of
the biontech
pfizer vaccine that was the first
vaccine that was approved
what's the picture like now in terms of
vaccine access for the world's poorest
countries
so it's a much better picture i should
say also it's great to be back uh it's a
much better picture but it is a
complicated picture still so the first
big thing that's happened is we have
additional vaccine candidates that
have shown themselves to be highly
effective in late stage clinical trials
so we also have the modern vaccine and
of course the astrozenica vaccine
and that's expanded the overall supply
of vaccine in the system
there are also the vaccines coming out
of china and russia
that although um in my opinion do not
have sufficiently
uh transparent shared data are being
taken up by some low and middle-income
countries
uh even already uh today um
and what we're seeing is there still are
not having vaccines
reach these countries in the quantities
we would like to see
um and the speed that we're seeing in
rich countries but we are starting to
see
kovacs which is an international uh uh
conglomerate global ngo
charity effort to ensure equitable
access
to these vaccines we see that they are
talking about
scheduling some of these deliveries for
this first round of vaccines in q1
so things are improving but they're not
where we want them to be quite yet
yeah and we've got the european union
saying that it's not receiving
what it paid for and what it ordered at
the same time you've got
south africa's president today accusing
wealthy countries of hoarding
the vaccine for for their own citizens
i mean what do you think what's the
truth here
the truth is it's complicated um the
truth i mean
fundamentally the truth is there's just
not enough vaccine supply to go
around to everyone right now and so what
we're seeing is
no country actually has access right now
everyone is struggling to get enough
supply to vaccinate their
citizens and is trying to keep up with
demand however what is true and i think
what uh president ramaphosa is referring
to
is the fact that rich countries have
pre-ordered
much more than they will need in
aggregate so by the end of this year
assuming supply projections happen as
expected
many wealthy countries will have much
more than they need while poorer
countries probably still will be
struggling to meet the needs of their
populations
so what i'd love to see is some
commitments to vaccinate
to donate the excess vaccinations once
countries uh
have know that they have enough to
vaccinate their own populations and what
norway is doing actually is
donating some doses in parallel to their
own vaccination efforts
well what about these cheaper vaccines
that are coming online now i'm thinking
of
astrazeneca i'm also thinking about the
one from johnson and johnson shouldn't
they help solve the problem for poorer
countries
absolutely so every new vaccine that
comes online especially these ones with
lower price points is
are enormously helpful at solving these
overall issues astrazeneca
we have pretty large international
production capacity
including through the serum institute in
india which is producing this vaccine in
mass
j and j uh we still don't have efficacy
readout for that vaccine but if it comes
online that will be great news
in large part because it only requires
one dose which is
tremendously helpful from a logistical
perspective so the more vaccines we get
online the closer we get to solving this
problem
and relieving the overall supply
constraints that we're all feeling
in europe in the us and in poorer
countries
rachel silverman with the center for
global development rachel we appreciate
your time
and your insights tonight thank you
thank you
let's get a look now at some other
developments in the pandemic
the number of coveted cases worldwide
has now surpassed 100 million that's
according to johns hopkins university
the kovacs vaccine sharing platform says
it hopes to supply
1.8 billion doses to poorer countries
this year
peru's president francisco sagasti has
ordered the total lockdown of the
capital lima
and nine other regions following a surge
in new cases there
and a chinese woman has been sentenced
to one year in prison for hiding her
virus symptoms
before boarding a flight from the u.s to
china last march
she took medication to suppress a fever
you