Coronavirus WHO criticises EU over vaccine export controls
The World Health Organization (WHO) has criticised the EU’s announcement of export controls on vaccines produced within the bloc, saying such measures risked prolonging the pandemic.
The EU introduced the measure amid a row with vaccine manufacturers over delivery shortfalls.
But WHO vice-head Mariangela Simao said it was a “very worrying trend”.
Earlier WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “vaccine nationalism” could lead to a “protracted recovery”.
Speaking at the Davos Agenda – a virtual version of the global summit – he said vaccine hoarding would “keep the pandemic burning and… slow global economic recovery”, in addition to being a “catastrophic moral failure” that could further widen global inequality.
What is the EU doing?
The European Union is introducing export controls on coronavirus vaccines made in the bloc, amid a row about delivery shortfalls.
The so-called transparency mechanism gives EU countries powers to deny authorisation for vaccine exports if the company making them has not honoured existing contracts with the EU.
“The protection and safety of our citizens is a priority and the challenges we now face left us with no choice but to act,” the European Commission said.
The controls will affect some 100 countries worldwide – including the UK, the US, Canada and Australia – but many others, including poorer nations, are exempt.
However, the EU has been forced to backtrack on plans to impose restrictions on the export of vaccines across the border on the island of Ireland after outcry from Dublin and London.
Why is this happening now?
The news comes with the EU in a very public dispute with drug-maker AstraZeneca over supplies, and under growing pressure over the slow pace of vaccine distribution.
Earlier on Friday the Commission made public a confidential contract with AstraZeneca, the UK-Swedish company behind the Oxford vaccine, to bolster its argument that the firm has been failing to fulfil its promises to deliver to the bloc.
Who is exempt from the export controls?
The EU is allowing some 92 exemptions from the export control regime, including: vaccine donations to Covax, the global scheme to help poorer countries; and exports to Switzerland, countries in the western Balkans, Norway and North Africa. Other Mediterranean countries such as Lebanon and Israel are also exempt.
But on Saturday WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told the BBC vaccines should be given to all vulnerable groups and health workers across the globe before each country starts giving the jabs out more widely.
This would mean wealthy nations, such as the UK, halting immunisations at home once priority groups had been vaccinated and instead helping with vaccinations elsewhere.
“We’re asking all countries in those circumstances to do that – hang on, wait for those other groups. Rather than rushing to vaccinate one country, we need to be doing the lot and we need to be doing it together,” she said.
So far 95% of all vaccinations had taken place in just 10 countries, Ms Harris said, while only two low and middle income countries had even begun immunisation programmes.
