Germany mulling order of Russian vaccine

BERLIN — Germany’s health minister said Thursday that the European Union doesn’t plan to order Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine but his country will hold talks with Russia on whether an individual order makes sense.

The EU’s executive Commission said Wednesday it won’t place orders for Sputnik V on member countries’ behalf, as it did with other manufacturers, Health Minister Jens Spahn told WDR public radio.

Spahn said he told his fellow EU health ministers that Germany, which has backed joint EU orders, “will talk bilaterally to Russia, first of all about when it could come and in what quantities.” He said “to really make a difference in our current situation, the deliveries would have to come in the next two to four or five months already.” Otherwise, he said, Germany would have “more than enough vaccine” already.

Amid a slow start to the vaccine rollout across the EU, there have been calls from some German politicians to order Sputnik V.

Spahn underscored the German government’s position that, to be deployed in the country, Sputnik V must be cleared for use by the EMA and “for that, Russia must deliver data.” The EU regulator started a rolling review of the vaccine in early March.

Germany is hoping to ramp up inoculations with the vaccines it already has, and many regular doctors’ practices joined the campaign this week. Official data showed that over 656,000 doses were administered Wednesday, compared with at most around 367,000 per day previously.

That means 13.8% of Germany’s population of 83 million has now received at least one dose of vaccine, with 5.7% having received both doses.

Meanwhile, a top EU official indicated that he’s skeptical about rushing into orders for the Russian or Chinese vaccines. Thierry Breton, who heads the EU Commission’s vaccine task force, said in a blog entry that he has “no reason to doubt the potential effectiveness, safety and quality of vaccines developed outside of the EU” but that is for the EMA to assess.