Slower and lower vaccination rates were a real problem in the early days of the EU’s vaccine rollout, although the tortoise did finally come good in the end when jab supplies eventually caught up with demand.
Now the issue is the very opposite, there is too little demand for supply. That poses a problem for the EU executive branch, the European Commission, which is in charge of the procurement programme for the entire bloc of 27 countries.
Poland is the first to throw a spanner in the works, confirming this week that it will no longer be drawing jabs from the EU’s pool nor will it pay for more doses. It means an inevitable legal challenge with the pharma giants making the vaccines.
The change of policy is down to reduced appetite for vaccines in Poland. Compared with the EU’s average inoculation rate of 75 per cent (two-dose regime), only 60 per cent of Poles have been vaccinated, ranking it among the worst in the EU.
Moreover, only 31 per cent of the...