BRUSSELS (AP) – Frustration is escalating from Europe to North America due to reduced deliveries of COfID-19 Pfizer vaccine, while US pharmaceutical company increases production capacity at its plant in Belgium. Governments say it costs critical time in the early stages of implementation to care for homes and hospital staff.
Italy has threatened to sue. The leader of Canada’s most populous province said Pfizer’s chief executive should be pursued “with a firecracker”. A senior European Union official has vehemently invoked the principle “pacta sunt servanda”, a Latin expression meaning “agreements must be kept”.
The EU and many nations are under pressure for what is seen as the slow start of their vaccination campaigns compared to countries such as Israel and the United Kingdom. Pfizer aggravated the problem last Friday, when it announced a temporary reduction in deliveries so that it could improve the Puurs plant in Belgium, which supplies all photos shipped outside the United States.
The delay, which the pharmaceutical giant said will last several weeks, not only affects the number of people who can be inoculated during that period, but also throws out the careful choreography that governments have developed to get the two doses for elderly residents and caregivers. necessary. in a strict schedule of a few weeks.
“It means huge complications for us,” said Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Similar complaints have been heard in several other EU countries, from Denmark to Belgium.
“Indeed,” added European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “we were all surprised by Pfizer-BioNTech’s announcement of a delay.”
The EU now expects Pfizer to deliver 92% of what was expected this week and next in the 27-nation bloc. The missing 8% is expected to be recovered in the week of February 15
Von der Leyen said the immediate challenge would be to provide sufficient doses to ensure that people who have already received the first Pfizer vaccine have received the second jab within the recommended timeframe.
“It is extremely important that we receive the doses set out in the contract,” the EU executive committee negotiated on behalf of member countries, she said. Overall, the EU should receive up to 600 million doses from Pfizer.
A number of US states are also reporting difficulties in getting enough vaccines. The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the US Department of Health and Human Services suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.
In Europe, harsh criticism of Pfizer is in stark contrast to the company’s awards last month for being exceptionally fast in producing a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first vaccine authorized for use in the United Kingdom, the EU and the United States.
Pfizer told the Associated Press late Wednesday that any small step back now would result in a huge leap forward during the year. The company was initially expected to produce 1.3 billion doses this year.
“We have explored innovative ways to increase the number of doses we can deliver this year, and we now believe we can deliver approximately 2 billion doses by the end of 2021,” the company said in a statement.
But even if this point is understood, many officials in Europe said they were disappointed by what they saw as a lack of communication without problems.
“The problem lies mainly in Pfizer’s short notice,” said German Health Minister Jens Spahn. “This is a troublesome issue.”
“I understand why (plants) need to be transformed in the short term to increase capacity in the medium and long term,” he said. “But it’s very unfortunate that this was … communicated to us practically overnight.”
The urgency and anticipation of getting vaccines circulating in the 27 EU nations, where 400,000 people have died of the virus, also fits in Canada, a nation of 37 million with more deaths than 18,000 pandemics.
Major General Dany Fortin, who is leading the launch and logistics distribution of vaccines in Canada, said Pfizer has completely postponed deliveries next week and that there will be a significant drop in vaccine supplies over the next three weeks.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said the deficit was more than an annoying logistical inconvenience.
“I’m just upset that other countries are getting it,” Ford said. He said that if he were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, would call every day and go to him “with a firecracker”.
“He wouldn’t know what hit him.” Ford added. “I wouldn’t stop until we get these vaccines.”
The European Union is likely to pursue Pfizer with a different weapon, but with the same fervor. The 27 leaders scheduled a video summit on Thursday, where vaccine launches will be a key issue.
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Rob Gillies in Toronto, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Sam Petrequin in Brussels, Karel Janicek in Prague and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.
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