EU Threatens Export Controls on COVID-19 Vaccine
As the European Union's vaccination effort lags behind other developed nations', the bloc threatens to implement export controls on vaccines made inside the EU to increase the number of doses available for its citizens. “In the future, all companies producing vaccines against COVID-19 in the EU will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries,” European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said in a news release Jan. 25.
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Kyriakides was one of multiple EU officials to express discontent with the EU's vaccination efforts. She expressed particular frustration at the strained negotiations between the EU and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca due to what the commissioner described as a breakdown in the company's vaccine commitments. “EU member states are united: vaccine developers have societal and contractual responsibilities they need to uphold,” Kyriakides said. German Health Minister Jens Spahn also called for export restrictions on vaccines in an interview with the German broadcaster ZDF Jan. 26.