, Columnist
Europe Is Botching the Vaccine Rollout
The EU’s reputation for competent government — and for its prized social model — is at stake.
More urgency needed.
Photographer: JEFF PACHOUD/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
European countries have long prided themselves on their strong welfare states, including public-health systems. They are also convinced that the state has a big role to play in fostering the recovery after the pandemic.
The painfully slow rollout of Covid-19 vaccines across the European Union is undermining any claims that government knows best, whether at a national or supranational level. Unless Europe gets its mass inoculation programs right, quickly, it will be hard to believe that its political model can deliver better results to its citizens than what’s available in the rest of the world.