Brussels Edition: Idle Vaccines

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

First, some EU members said AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine shouldn’t be given to seniors — despite guidance to the contrary from the bloc’s drugs regulator — only to change their minds a few days later. Then they suspended administering the shot over alleged blood-clotting side-effects, again in spite of reassurances from the European Medicines Agency. Precious time is being lost, and the EMA warns that the public’s trust in vaccines is being shaken. The EU is also seen as hoarding a vaccine it doesn’t use, depriving poorer nations that need it desperately. Governments like to blame the underwhelming rollout on everyone else — including delays in deliveries, procurement, and market authorization. But the data show that they are sitting on millions of unused doses, partly because their rhetoric has made people wary of getting the jab. Expect yet more finger-pointing if, in the end, other developed economies get fully immunized, and can reopen, much faster.