‘Not a hostile act against Australia’
Italian move to block vaccine shipment follows EU threat to restrict exports
Italy has blocked 250,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine from being flown to Australia, the government said yesterday, making good on the European Union’s recent threats to clamp down on such exports amid a global tug of war over desperately needed jabs.
The move to stop the shipment by AstraZeneca was a sharp escalation in the competition for vaccines, one that has become ever more frantic as Europe confronts the early signs of a possible new wave of infections driven by new coronavirus variants.
The prospect of shipping hundreds of thousands of doses from Italy, where infections are on a steep ascent, to Australia, which is recording a handful of daily cases, evidently proved unpalatable to Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Draghi. Italy took action under new EU rules — passed after AstraZeneca cut projected deliveries — that allow members to stop exports of vaccines to nations outside the bloc.
Australia reacted calmly, officials saying the blocked delivery would not have a major effect.
The EU’s disastrously slow vaccine rollout has enraged many Europeans and embarrassed their leaders. Ever since AstraZeneca slashed the number of doses it expected to deliver in the early part of 2021, European leaders have been lashing out at it and trying to assuage citizens’ anger.
Vaccine makers have had some leeway within their contracts to decide where to send doses from a global network of factories. But Italy — which endured one of the harshest outbreaks — has pressed for bolder action by Europe to seize more control.
Amid vaccination campaigns that have been dominated by rich nations, Italy’s move intensified a global slugfest over doses that analysts have warned could drive up prices and further undercut their fair distribution.
But Italy is not the only country reluctant to watch doses get shipped elsewhere. European leaders have noted the United States and Britain are largely holding tight to vaccines made in those countries.
The US has rejected the idea of sending some of its supply of vaccines to Mexico. And Britain indicated it could send spare doses to Ireland once supplies for its entire vaccination programme were assured.
The doses originally bound for Australia will be kept within the European Union, part of the stock being shared by member countries.
The EU battle with AstraZeneca erupted in January. The company had said it would try to provide 80 million doses to the European Union in the first quarter of this year, but after production failures, it halved that.
AstraZeneca, which developed its vaccine with the University of Oxford, eventually agreed to send some additional doses but not enough to mollify European leaders who have been under huge pressure to turbocharge relatively sluggish rollouts.
For Draghi, who took office last month, accelerating the pace of vaccinations has become a priority. He has challenged the European Union for not controlling the export of vaccines as stringently as the US. And he has ramped up the country’s vaccine targets and replaced the top officials in charge of the rollout.
“We need to go faster, much faster,” Draghi said during the last meeting of European leaders. He insisted the bloc should make aggressive use of all its legal rights to rapidly boost supply at home. He has sought to mark a shift with Italy’s previous government, a coalition led by Giuseppe Conte. Conte’s government was criticised for its handling of the vaccination campaign.
Under the new EU rules, companies must seek permission to export doses produced within the bloc, and the bloc asks its members to weigh in. After receiving a request last week from AstraZeneca about the 250,000 doses bound for Australia, Italy told the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, it did not want to allow the exports. The commission did not object, and Italy’s foreign ministry told AstraZeneca on Wednesday.
It was the first such move since the creation of the new EU controls, which are set to remain in place until the end of March, when supplies are expected to improve. Since the rules were imposed, member states have waved through 174 export shipments of vaccines by various producers, allowing them to go to Canada, Mexico and other countries.
The Italian foreign ministry yesterday explained the decision to block the shipment, saying Australia was a “non-vulnerable” country, alluding to its success in tamping down cases, whereas European countries were desperate for doses. “It is not a hostile act against Australia,” Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
But Europe’s troubles do not stem from supply problems alone: Many European countries have had enormous trouble making quick use of the jabs they have already received.
Of the 51 million vaccine doses that had been delivered to the 27 EU nations, about 30 million had been administered, according to European Commission data last week. Many of the unused doses were being reserved for second jabs, but others were languishing for other reasons, including poor communications.
In a statement yesterday, Australia’s Health Minister, Greg Hunt, said his country had enough doses to “take us through” until domestic production began this month.
Australia has had fewer coronavirus cases, relative to its size, than almost any other large developed country and has been recently averaging only nine new cases a day, according to a New York Times database.
Italy is averaging more than
18,000 new cases a day, a pace that, adjusted for population, is more than
800 times as high as Australia’s. Still, the vaccine rollout has also been slow in Australia, which had planned to rely heavily on AstraZeneca. The country had signed a contract for 3.8 million AstraZeneca doses made in Europe, a stopgap until a manufacturer in Australia was able to get started on vaccine production.
In January, its expected delivery from Europe was cut to 1.2 million doses amid AstraZeneca’s production problems, despite lobbying efforts by Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne.
Only one major delivery has arrived. As of February 28, only
33,702 doses had been administered nationwide, according to government figures.
“There is great prudence in us sourcing a number of vaccines but also starting domestic production as well,” said Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.