The head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen spoke about the failures in the mass vaccination of residents of the association. She is quoted by Deutsche Welle.
“We got permission [for vaccination] too late. And, perhaps, we were too sure that the drugs would arrive on time. Now we need to ask ourselves why this happened and understand what lesson we can learn from this situation “, – said von der Leyen.
According to her, despite the mistakes made, 17 million people have already been vaccinated in the EU. The head of the EC stressed that she will do everything to ensure that 70 percent of the population will receive the drug by the end of the summer of 2021.
The EU is facing a number of problems in the supply of vaccines against the coronavirus. So, on January 15, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced its decision to reduce the supply of the drug to European countries while modernizing its production. Then on January 23, the Bild newspaper reported that AstraZeneca would not be able to deliver the expected number of doses of its vaccine to European countries. One of the reasons for the disruption to supplies is a fire at a vaccine plant under construction in the Indian city of Pune.
Vaccination in the European Union started on December 27. The first approved vaccine was Pfizer / BioNTech, followed by Moderna and AstraZeneca. At the end of January, Russia applied for the registration of Sputnik V.