The solution to vaccine nationalism is vaccine internationalism
Letter of the day
When Boris Johnson quipped capitalism and greed were behind UK’s vaccine rollout’s success, for once he was on nodding terms with the truth.
A pity the same can’t be said for the armchair finger pointing recrimination by vaccine nationalist T Gardener when he maliciously claimed EU leaders were allowing the virus to run rampant through the populations of the member states. (‘It has taken a pandemic…’ March 26)
The stark truth is the EU were three weeks behind the UK in approving a vaccine, which allowed us to get our orders in first and snap up millions of AstraZeneca doses at the expense of continental Europe and the rest of the world. With supply exceeding demand, unexpected production delays, and convoluted contractual obligations, small wonder the EU’s leaders have made such a hash of the entire process.
Both Merkel and Macron have both admitted their hesitancy was a serious mistake that will cost lives, but nothing on the scale of the initial inaction of the British government, resulting in a death toll approaching 127,000, the fifth highest in the world.
There has been incompetence in dealing with the unpredictable consequences of the pandemic and guilt on all sides. We need to understand and recognise the complexity of the situation before we engage in cheap point scoring to blame each other.
We urgently need to reflect where stand in relation to the 90 per cent of the world which doesn’t have any vaccine doses at all.
The solution to vaccine nationalism, is vaccine internationalism, one of the primary founding values of the EU.