Brazil Is a Bleak Covid Warning for Europe and Britain
The pandemic is a global problem and needs a global response. Nationalistic vaccine fights like the one between the EU and U.K. will only delay its end.
Bad times in Brazil.
Photo: Bloomberg
The European Union and the U.K.’s spat over Covid-19 vaccine supplies is heating up, with the EU ready to block exports of AstraZeneca Plc’s shots to Britain until its own needs are met. The wrong lessons are being learned amid the scramble to immunize.
As a way to boost Europe’s sluggish vaccine rollout, an export ban is unlikely to be a game-changer: Airfinity data cited by The Guardian suggest it would speed up the bloc’s immunization campaign by about a week. The delay to the U.K.’s own rollout, meanwhile, could last months, handing a win to the coronavirus and making tit-for-tat British trade reprisals likely. This could affect all drugmakers, not just the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca.