EU countries have so far donated just a tiny portion of excess Covid-19 vaccines to poor nations, mostly out-of-favour AstraZeneca shots, less than 3% of the 160m doses they plan to give away in total to help tame the global pandemic, an EU document shows.
The EU has committed to helping inoculate the most vulnerable across the world but, like other wealthy countries, EU states have so far focused on buying shots to inoculate their own citizens, contributing to a shortage of vaccines elsewhere, Reuters reports.
EU states, with a combined adult population of 365 million, have so far received about 500m doses from drugmakers and expect nearly a billion by the end of September.
But as of 13 July they had donated less than 4m shots, the internal document, compiled by the European Commission and reviewed by Reuters, shows.
In total, it says EU countries have committed to sharing about 160m doses, mostly without preference about their destination. The tally of shipments and pledged total have not been reported before.
Brussels had previously said EU nations planned to donate at least 100m doses by the end of the year. There is no timeline for the target listed in the document.
Those jabs distributed so far went mostly to countries and territories with a link to the donor as member states seek to boost relations with nearby countries and deepen diplomatic ties. The small shipments are likely to stir the debate about how wealthy countries are sharing their surplus shots while poor countries still struggle to get supplies.
The EU document shows that most doses will be shared through the Covax programme. Many poor countries rely on Covax for their vaccines, but it has so far delivered only 135m shots globally and is highly dependent on donated doses, according to Reuters. Plans to buy shots on its own were temporarily derailed by vaccine makers’ production problems and export restrictions in a number of countries.
The EU has received enough vaccine to fully inoculate 70% of adults, while South Africa has given only 7% of its adult population one dose and Nigeria only 1%.
Many EU countries have set limits on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as well as Johnson & Johnson due to concerns about extremely rare blood clotting, reducing the capacity to use them.
France is by far the EU’s main donor in terms of pledges. It has promised 60m doses, mostly to Covax and largely without any preference on their final destination. However, it has so far delivered only about 800,000 doses, half of which went to its former colonies Senegal, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, the document shows.
