Except others, European Union is in dire straits grappling to seek timely and adequate supply of COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate its more than 450 million populations. Given the staggering scramble, EU is also facing worst challenge that involves threats of new emerging variants of virus, monopolization of pharmaceutical firms for not having patent-sharing strategy and top of them vaccine’s mass scale availability to all in the bloc diminishing divide among 27 members on the basis of any preference.
Since deliverable strategy is yet to be hashed out, signs of acute pressure has begun appearing conspicuously. Recently, Hungary, important member of EU, has to part its way from EU procurement and vaccination mechanism terming it slow-paced lagging behind desired results. Observing glimmer of hope, Hungary has found its survivability in Chinese vaccine due to its robust production capacity and reliable international supply system.
Following Hungry, a number of EU members are under immense stress to greenlight Chinese vaccines to vaccinate their people without any delay of time. It is fortunate that if orders are placed, China has comprehensive vaccine manufacturing infrastructure, logistics paraphernalia and viable supply chain system in place to meet surge of international demand in befitting manner. Currently, China is providing vaccine assistance to 53 developing countries and exporting Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines to 22 countries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said last Monday. Sinopharm, has already successfully delivered tens of millions of doses of other types of vaccines to countries in Asia, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Africa, in accordance with WHO guidelines.
Hungary, a member country of the European Union’s 27 nations bloc, has already approved Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Sinopharm for emergency use and has procured 5 million vaccine doses. In Hungary 2.5 million people have registered so far for COVID-19 vaccine jabs and with help of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine the country hoping to inoculate entire registered nominees by coming Easter. The timely decision to go for Chinese vaccine will boost-up Hungarian economy and current government image, expressed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a recent radio talk show.
The EU’s planned time line to inoculate vaccine jabs to its 70 per cent adult population by end of summer season is going to have immense impacts on European community
While an EU candidate country Serbia Kick-started COVID-19 vaccination program securing one million doses of Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 Vaccine. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that he is hoping to be victorious in the race of vaccinating national population ahead of any other European state.
Undoubtedly keeping in view slow rollout of EU vaccine program, Chinese vaccines readiness and availability with reliable production capacity are stepping stone in fulfilling the demands of vaccine for entire EU bloc.
The time is running out and already delayed European vaccination strategy is not profiting its 450 million people of the bloc. The EU’s planned time line to inoculate vaccine jabs to its 70 per cent adult population by end of summer season is going to have immense impacts on European community.
Time is ripe to set aside differences with Chinese and should gear up to benefit from scientific work done by Chinese scientists in developing COVID-19 vaccines. Chinese COVID-19 vaccines Sinopharm, SinoVac, CaronaVac and CanSinoBio are being administered in more than 30 countries around the globe on daily basis with no haunting side-affects reported. While China also donated 10 million jabs to developing countries under COVAX program initiated by World Health Organization (WHO).
Addressing the virtual summit of China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his willingness to work jointly with its Western partners to liberate mankind from COVID-19 pandemic. The closer collaboration and cohesion in elimination of COVID-19 will help stimulating international trade and bring normalcy in societies, Mr. Xi said.
The European Union (EU) response to welcome Chinese vaccine in its borders will bring healthy relief to home sick and economically drained Europeans. Ms. Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and her counterpart French President Emmanuel Macron echoed with European Commission President Ursula von dor Leyen to work with Chinese to fulfill bloc’s requirement of 2.3 billion doses. While Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz shows eagerness to produce Chinese vaccine locally if vaccine developers obtain green light (certification for emergency use) from the European Medicine Agency (EMA).
Portugal Prime Minister and EU’s current President Antonio Costa also stressed the collective efforts from EU body to procure COVID-19 vaccination to avoid delays. Mr. Antonio Costa also underlined the need of winning the marathon of vaccinating 70 per cent (almost 7 million) of Portuguese population by end of September 2021. In Portugal around 436,000 people have been administered with COVID-19 doses so far and 133,000 have received 2 doses.
EU-China Business Association Chairman Mr. Jochum Haakma also under pinned the duty call of close cooperation in fighting COVID-19 and sharing medical assistance beyond regional goals.
Cambodia is the latest country in the basket to use Chinese vaccine Sinopharm to inoculate 0.5 million people while Brazil also order 20 million more jabs of Sinovac Biotech vaccine to curb the COVID-19 devastation.
Turkey has vaccinated 2 million of its population with approved Chinese vaccine and have further ordered 10 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine. Pakistan has also approved Chinese vaccine Sinopharm and also a second country after Mexico allowing CanSinoBio another Chinese made vaccine.
Africa is also looking forward to be vaccinated with Chinese COVID-19 vaccinations because of its availability and storage easiness. The founder of the information program China-Africa-Project Mr. Eric Olander categorically rule out the suitability of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for African continent even if it became available because of its storage and transportation restrictions. The Seychelles became the first African country using the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on January 10.
United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were the 1st middle eastern countries to use Chinese vaccine followed by Morocco, Serbia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Mongolia, the Palestinian territories, Belarus, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea in different parts of the planet earth.
Muhammad Faisal is a senior journalist working for Portugal mainstream media houses. With special interest on China-Portugal and China-EU trade ties, he writes opinion pieces on economy, diplomacy and international relations