French Europe minister Clément Beaune on Monday had to deny that the EU’s handling of a vaccine crisis was “the best sign for Brexit”, instead Britain was taking dangerous risks that his country would not accept. because of her “difficult sanitary condition”.
Reiterating doubts expressed in Germany and by French president Emmanuel Macron about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Mr Beaune said the UK had left itself very open by relying on vaccination – suggests that the strategy may reverse.
In an interview with France Inter, Mr Beaune was asked to comment that Britain had been vaccinated “nine million people and France just 1.5 million”.
“Isn’t European regulation of vaccines the best advertisement for Brexit?” said the interviewee.
“I don’t think so,” Mr. Beaune said. “This has nothing to do with Brexit.”
“The British are in a very difficult state of health. They take a lot of risks with their immunization program. I can understand that. They have found the delay between the two injections to be up to 42 days. Our scientists tell us you can’t do that, “he said.
“They are heavily dependent on one vaccine, AstraZeneca, and the German authority has already stated that there are doubts about its effectiveness for people over 65. In the UK they are used for that group.
“So I believe, clearly because they are in a difficult sanitary situation, that they are taking those extra risks. I don’t think our public would accept that we take all those risks. against the advice of our scientists.
His comments came after Mr Macron on Friday said the AstraZeneca vaccine was “semi-ineffective” for people over 65. He was referring to the German vaccination committee, which recommended this week it was suggested that AstraZeneca should only be given to people under that age, citing a lack of sufficient data from the clinical trials.
That prompted an irate response from Sir John Bell, a key member of the team that developed the Oxford AstraZeneca, which said the French president was missing out to compensate for his country’s inadequate supply of the drug. .
“This report suggests that he did not look at the clinical data or immunogenicity that show it is excellent in people over 65,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Saturday. There is ample evidence of strong responses to antibodies in this age group and you can be sure that they will respond to the vaccine. He may be trying to reduce demand for the vaccine for some reason. “