EU countries have only donated a tiny portion of surplus Covid-19 vaccines to poor nations, despite making a commitment to share about 160M doses
In total, it says EU countries have committed to sharing about 160 million doses, mostly without preference about their destination. The tally of shipments and pledged total have not been reported before.
According to the document, those 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 World Health Organization has called on Western governments to donate shots to the COVAX programme it runs with vaccine charity GAVI to ensure fair and equitable distribution to the world's neediest.The EU said on Thursday that most of the 200 million doses would be shared through the programme.
The EU shipments are also small compared with more than 15 million doses donated by Washington and shipped over the past month to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America as part of the US pledge to give away 80 million vaccines. A big portion of those have been through COVAX.Almost all AstraZeneca
Many EU countries have set limits on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as well as J&J due to concerns about extremely rare blood clotting, reducing the capacity to use them.The Commission spokesman said that all vaccines used in the EU were safe and could be donated.
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