EU gets down and dirty

Thursday 18th March, 2021

The vaccine war is intensifying in Europe. The European Union (EU) is apparently determined to make the UK regret Brexit. It is doing everything in its power to hurt Britain. British exports to the EU fell by nearly 41% in January as opposed to a 28.8% drop in its imports, due to the post-Brexit new trading rules. Britain’s trade with non-EU states has remained stable, indicating that Brexit, and not the pandemic, is the reason for the drop in British exports to the EU. This is a worrisome proposition for the UK. The EU now stands accused of having targeted the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to settle scores with the UK. The number of EU member states that have stopped using the Oxford AZ vaccine allegedly on the grounds that it causes blood clots is increasing. Politics and economics have taken precedence over science and concern for humanity! Big pharma, which has not taken kindly to the affordable Oxford AZ vaccine, which has become popular, will go to any length to monopolise the vaccine market and make a killing.

A UK-based senior cardiologist has, in an article we publish today, given the lie to the EU’s claim at issue, and explained why erstwhile European allies of the UK are rallying support for their campaign against the Oxford AZ vaccine. Dr. Upul Wijayawardhana points out that the UK has already vaccinated almost 25 million, and up to the end of February, only 30 cases of blood clots were detected among 9.7 million people given the Oxford AZ vaccine. The figure is slightly higher for the Pfizer vaccine—about 38 cases among the first 10.7 million recipients, the good doctor says, noting that these figures are lower than what would be expected in the general population, suggesting that neither of the vaccines causes blood clots. This has also been the position of many independent medical specialists the world over, according to media reports, but the EU remains impervious to reason; its anti-British campaign is fraught with the danger of people across the globe losing faith in not only the Oxford AZ vaccine but also all other vaccines. The ongoing vaccine war is likely to put the global vaccination drive in jeopardy. An erosion of public faith in vaccination is the last thing the world needs at this juncture because as many people as possible have to be vaccinated in double-quick time for the global community to develop herd immunity, which is the be-all and end-all of the ongoing efforts to beat the virus.

The EU campaign against the Oxford AZ vaccine has apparently benefited Pfizer, which is fishing in troubled waters. Pfizer, driven by an insatiable thirst for maximising profits, has stepped up vaccine imports to the EU. It as well as BioNtech is expected to deliver to the EU 10 million more doses than originally due. Has the EU helped these two companies by campaigning against the Oxford AZ vaccine?

The UK’s angry reaction to the EU using unsubstantiated claims in support of the ongoing anti-Oxford AZ vaccine campaign is understandable. The EU has refused to listen even to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which has recommended that the use of Oxford AZ vaccine be continued. The World Health Organisation has also dismissed concerns about the safety of the Oxford AZ vaccine as baseless. But having already made up their minds, the EU leaders apparently do not want anyone to confuse them with facts. Ironically, the UK is doing to Sri Lanka, in Geneva, what it flays the EU for doing to it as regards the Oxford AZ vaccine—taking hostile action based on unsubstantiated claims.

The EU campaign against the Oxford AZ vaccine is likely to put paid to the global efforts to control the pandemic, thereby facilitating the transmission of the much-feared virus. Similarly, the politically-motivated human rights offensive led by the UK (and the US), based on unsubstantiated allegations of war crimes against Sri Lanka, which has effectively neutralised terrorism, is likely give a fillip to the spread of terrorism across the globe.