Covid-19: Why Great Britain’s Vaccination Campaign Is Far Ahead Of The Rest Of Europe

(Drivebycuriosity) - The world is vaccinating against Covid-19. Great Britain is far ahead of the rest of Europe. More than 50% of the British received already the first dose (chart above source ). The swift vaccination is reducing the number of persons who could get infected and breaks many infection chains. The rapid progress saves lives as the falling numbers of new infections, hospital admissions & deaths show.

 

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Why are the UK ahead of other nations? There are 2 reasons: 

1. The UK had a head start. The Brits were the first in the world to give the green light to a clinically-approved Covid-19 vaccine, on Dec. 2 ( qz.com). In December the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is in charge of approving COVID-19 vaccines for the EU, said its longer approval procedure was more appropriate as it was based on more evidence and required more checks than the emergency procedure chosen by the UK (aljazeera ). The EMA’s comments came hours after the UK became the first country in the world to approve the drug developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for use.

 The Brits were not only faster than the rest of the world, they also negotiated contracts which encouraged the production of the life-saving vaccine. While the anti-capitalist European Commission, responsible for the common European politics, made sure that the pharma corporations did not make profits with the vaccines, were the Brits more generous, which encouraged the vaccine creators to produce more and faster ( spiegel.de  marginalrevolution).  "The pattern of Britain investing aggressively and early while the EU takes a slower, more cautious approach has been the hallmark of the vaccine race in Europe", wrote AP ( apnews). And the magazine Politico comments: "The contract - the vaccine producers - sealed with London was written by people with significant experience of purchasing agreements, specifically drug-buying deals. The European Commission’s contract, by contrast, shows a lack of commercial common sense, in the lawyer’s view" (politico ).

2. Great Britain chose a first-dose-first (FDF) strategy. While the US and the EU countries follow the original recommendations by the vaccine producers and try to give the recipients 2 doses in a short time (21 days for Pfizer, 28 days for Moderna) the British delay the second dose about 3 months which allowed them to vaccinate twice the number of people in a short time.

New findings support the British strategy. It turned out that AstraZeneca works better when the second dose is injected after three months (not just after four weeks as originally recommended spiegel.de). According to AstraZeneca a longer waiting time raises the efficacy by 80% (papers ). Other studies show that the first doses from Moderna or Pfizer are already 80% effective after around 2 weeks ( cnbc).

The success on the vaccination front allows the British government to lift the lockdowns and to reopen the economy swiftly, faster than her European neighbors  (bbc ).