Cleaning up Europe’s vaccine mess

If the EU wants to reproduce a similar initiative to the US, mobilising sufficient financial resources will be a significant obstacle — though perhaps not the biggest one.

A man takes a picture of a mural depicting a white dove parachuting Covid-19 vaccine vials, posted near the Italian Health Ministry Headquarters in Rome on Sunday, April 4. Picture: Gregorio Borgia/AP

Covid-19 has caused vast suffering across Europe, and the EU's slow vaccine rollout threatens to prolong the agony. If the region’s leaders do not take decisive action soon, the pandemic could cause irreversible damage to the EU itself.

When the coronavirus hit the region in 2020, member states were unable to agree on vaccine deployment. National governments entrusted vaccine procurement to the European Commission, but then failed to harmonise their production and distribution strategies, or reach a consensus on which groups should be vaccinated first. More recently, 13 European countries suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a small number of people who had received it developed atypical vascular thrombosis.