Claims by some in the European Union (EU) that the bloc is winning its COVID-19 'Vaccine War' against the UK rang increasingly hollow yesterday as the British inoculation drive surged ahead.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian claimed on Friday that his country had given as many booster shots as Britain — and that the UK immunisation drive was on the verge of collapse amid EU threats to block exports of the Oxford-developed AstraZeneca jab.
“The UK is proud to have vaccinated many people with the first dose, but they will have a problem with the second dose,” Le Drian claimed. “And we are fully vaccinated with two doses, not one. Today we have the same number of fully vaccinated people in France and the United Kingdom."
Over 3 million Brits have now received the second dose, compared to 2.55 million French. As a proportion of the population, 4.5 percent of UK residents had been given both doses compared to 3.7 per cent in France.
“A cooperative relationship must be found with the UK so that AstraZeneca fulfils its signed commitments with the EU, but we can’t accept any sort of blackmail," Le Drian insisted.
He claimed Britain was "pushing for the first jab, knowing there will be problems with the second one," adding: "Europe does not have to pay the price for this policy.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government in early January chose to give as many first doses to the most-vulnerable as possible, leaving follow-up shots for the maximum 12-week interval recommended by drug regulators.
Meanwhile European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose insistence on centralising vaccine approval and purchasing under her committee's control, repeated her now-regular threats to block vaccine exports to the UK over its dispute with AstraZeneca and delivery schedules. Earlier this week the Anglo-Swedish pharma giant debunked sensationalist reports that it had "hidden" 29 million doses at a bottling plant in Italy
With some 64 million doses given over three months among a population of 450 million, at the current rate, EU member states will not have vaccinated their entire adult populations until some time in 2023 — while Johnson's government has pledged to hit that target this summer and lift the current coronavirus lockdown.