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France claims UK will struggle to source second Covid jabs
Source: The Guardian
France claims UK will struggle to source second Covid jabs
EU will not be blackmailed over Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, says foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian
Daniel Boffey in Brussels
Fri 26 Mar 2021 17.19 GMT
The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close political ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claimed that the UK’s success had been built on driving forward with first jabs without having secured the second doses necessary for full vaccination.
The intervention came as the EU and the UK are locked in talks about the fate of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs produced in a factory in the Netherlands over which both sides are laying claim. Sources said that despite conciliatory language earlier in the week over finding a solution the two sides were struggling to find common ground.
In an interview with FranceInfo radio, Le Drian suggested that the EU should not have to lose out on the doses to help Britain with a problem of its own making. EU officials and top-rank politicians have repeatedly said they will block any export request by AstraZeneca.
“The UK is proud to have vaccinated many people with the first dose, but they will have a problem with the second dose,” Le Drian said. “And we are fully vaccinated with two doses, not one. Today we have the same number of fully vaccinated people in France and the United Kingdom.
-snip-
EU will not be blackmailed over Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, says foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian
Daniel Boffey in Brussels
Fri 26 Mar 2021 17.19 GMT
The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.
Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close political ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claimed that the UK’s success had been built on driving forward with first jabs without having secured the second doses necessary for full vaccination.
The intervention came as the EU and the UK are locked in talks about the fate of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs produced in a factory in the Netherlands over which both sides are laying claim. Sources said that despite conciliatory language earlier in the week over finding a solution the two sides were struggling to find common ground.
In an interview with FranceInfo radio, Le Drian suggested that the EU should not have to lose out on the doses to help Britain with a problem of its own making. EU officials and top-rank politicians have repeatedly said they will block any export request by AstraZeneca.
“The UK is proud to have vaccinated many people with the first dose, but they will have a problem with the second dose,” Le Drian said. “And we are fully vaccinated with two doses, not one. Today we have the same number of fully vaccinated people in France and the United Kingdom.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/26/france-uk-struggle-source-second-covid-jabs-eu-blackmail