LONDON. “First reaction: shock”, as some would say. And here too, as in the EU, the problem seems to be AstraZeneca. Because now the doses of the anti Covid vaccine are starting to be decidedly scarce even in the United Kingdom, and not only in Europe. For this reason, yesterday, the British Ministry of Health sent a letter to the main vaccination centers of the country and to general practitioners: from 29 March, it says, there will be “a significant reduction in the delivery and availability of doses of the Coronavirus vaccine. ”, Which in the British understatement stands for a collapse, or so, from expectations and plans. “So”, continues the letter, “in the month of April the second doses of vaccine will be administered in advance”.
The Johnson strategy
It is a serious blow to the vaccination strategy of the government of Boris Johnson, which so far has been stellar in Europe, thanks to the advantage obtained also from Brexit and consequently to the greater freedom of action that the prime minister has so far, in addition to the profitable “home ”With the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca. Just yesterday, Health Minister Matt Hancock announced the target of 25 million inoculations to British residents so far and this week will reach 50% of the adult population already partially immunized. A huge success compared to Europe’s delays.
London, Prime Minister Johnson: “I’ll get the AstraZeneca vaccine”
by our correspondent Antonello Guerrera
What happens now? The Johnson government acknowledges the setback, but has not revised the original goals for now: that is, the entire adult population vaccinated by the end of July and the over 50 by April. Subsequently, yesterday Hancock himself admitted that, “as expected, there can always be hitches or delays, and this time it happened.” More pragmatically, it will go down, it is not yet known how much, from the 500 thousand doses of the anti Covid vaccine administered every day (Pfizer 60% and AstraZeneca 40% so far overall).
The problem is that the government has chosen the strategy, then emulated by many other European countries, of delaying the second dose for up to 12 weeks. The original goal, for the next few months, was to reach one million inoculations per day, in order to administer the second scheduled doses and continue at the current rate for the first. This will in all likelihood not be possible in the coming weeks. Therefore, in April, we will only think about completing the immunization of citizens who have already received the first dose and covering all those over 50. At this point, those under 50 in the United Kingdom will have to wait until at least May to receive their first dose. This could have an impact, among other things, on their summer plans, because it is possible that some countries will not accept travelers from abroad with a single administration of the Covid vaccine.
The reasons for the delay
But what has caused this delay on the hitherto lightning-fast UK immunization schedule? The Johnson government always imposes the utmost secrecy on the sources of vaccine supply, so much so that it has never communicated the number of doses available in the country. Last night, there was much speculation on the consequences overseas of the stop to the export of vaccines announced once again yesterday by the president of the EU Commission Ursula Von der Leyen, yesterday accused of “dictatorial methods” by the British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab and today sbertucciata by the tabloids but also by more moderate conservative newspapers such as the Times for its “protectionist and dangerous strategy” on vaccines. After all, beyond Oxford-AstraZeneca, all British doses of Pfizer’s vaccine are also produced in the EU.
Coronavirus in the world: AstraZeneca still cuts the doses destined for the EU
In reality, according to what is learned from Downing Street, the problem announced yesterday would be due to a delay in the supply of about ten million doses of AstraZeneca that were to be produced in India, by the Serum Institute, and shipped to the United Kingdom. Where, again according to government sources, the local production chain “proceeds regularly”.
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