EU chief defends later vaccine rollout as ‘good decision’

PARIS: The EU commission chief has defended the slow Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the bloc as a “good decision,” saying officials would not put the safety of citizens at risk, in an interview published Tuesday.

Ursula von der Leyen’s comments in French daily Le Monde come after she was criticised over a far slower vaccine rollout than in Britain, as well as a botched move to halt exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“Some countries started to vaccinate a little before Europe, it is true,” she said, pointing to emergency procedures used for authorisation. But she added: “The commission and the member states agreed not to compromise on the safety and effectiveness requirements linked to the authorisation of a vaccine.”

British authorities began their innoculation drive in December several weeks before European countries, and have also begun extending the delay between administering the first and second doses to up to 12 weeks to ensure more people get protected sooner.

With some politicians in Britain claiming the higher numbers of vaccinations had vindicated Brexit, France’s Europe Minister Clement Beaune said the British vaccination rollout was taking “a lot of risks.”

“I do not think that our fellow citizens would accept that we take all the risks — contrary to the opinions of our scientists — for this vaccination campaign,” he told France Inter on Monday. The head start in Britain “has nothing to do with Brexit,” Beaune added.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected the claims about safety concerns, saying numerous experts backed the idea of spreading the gap between vaccine jabs to 12 weeks “to ensure we can provide more people with protection.”

He reiterated that June Raine, head of Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, “was very clear that no corners were cut and no stones were left unturned.” “The prime minister’s view is that the public should remain confident in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccinations,” he added.

Adding to the Covid vaccination debates, French President Emmanuel Macron said in interviews published Friday that AstraZeneca’s jab, which is set to be the backbone of the British campaign, appeared not to be effective for people over 65 years of age.

France’s health authority is due later Tuesday to give its verdict on approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine and who it should be used on.

Macron’s office also said the president had convened top pharmaceutical executives to meet Tuesday evening with Health Minister Olivier Veran, EU industry and technology commissioner Thierry Breton, and other officials to discuss vaccine production efforts.