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“Since the very beginning of the vaccination campaign in Europe, we have heard questionable excuses from pharmaceutical companies trying to justify their failure to respect agreed commitments and live up to EU citizens’ expectations. This is not acceptable. Europe has paid for these vaccines in advance with public money and we demand that companies respect the agreements. Every single day of delay is a failure for our health and the economic recovery.”
S&D co-ordinator in the environment committee, Jytte Guteland
The S&D Group sent a clear message to pharmaceutical CEOs this week, calling on companies to increase the production of vaccines and look at future challenges with new variants and strains.
EU summits are like a regular medical check-up for our union. Expert eyes can immediately see how good its health is. One very good measurement is EU leaders’ ability to decide.
The leaders just had their second COVID-19 summit this year. Last year, from March to December, they met (mostly virtually) eight times to discuss the coronavirus and its implications.
In a perfect world, after ten such meetings, you would expect that the leaders would have taken the necessary decisions so that the pandemic was contained with minimum restrictions.
You would expect that the same rules apply for EU citizens so they don’t have to fight with each other’s bureaucracies, that all of us are equipped with the same COVID-19 app, that borders remain open unless Brussels decides on a temporary closure here or there, that vaccination campaigns are conducted in a uniform way, that an EU communication campaign would tackle anti-vaxxers, and much more.
25 Feb 2021 | News
‘We can’t find ourselves in the same situation again’
EU director of public health calls for better pandemic preparedness, as health commissioner tells Science|Business conference that vaccine rollout is ‘gathering pace’
John Ryan, director of public health, country knowledge and crisis management at the European Commission’s DG Sante. Photo: EU Commission.
Member states must absorb the harsh lessons of the pandemic and plan for the next, warns John Ryan, director of public health, country knowledge and crisis management at the European Commission’s DG Sante.
“Anybody living through the past 12 months knows we have to learn lessons from this,” he told a Science|Business conference on Tuesday. “The whole idea is not to procure in an emergency. Have the mock-up contracts [for purchasing medical supplies] ready. We have to move away from doing things in the middle of a pandemic,” Ryan said.