European countries turn to Russia, China amid sluggish EU vaccine rollout
Bianca Rahimi
Press TV, London
The biggest vaccination campaign in history is underway. COVID-19 has already taken 2.2 million lives and crippled economies everywhere.
It’s a test of unity for mankind, but is geopolitics once again getting in the way? The European Union is struggling to prove it is not a failed experiment. It’s vaccine rollout has been sluggish and aspiring EU states like Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, who trusted Brussels and the COVAX program to deliver the vaccine, are still empty-handed. Serbia, however, did not wait for handouts.
Serbia has already vaccinated half a million people. It is seeking entry into the European Union, but for now China and Russia, with which the Balkans nation has maintained close political ties, have delivered on the vaccine. And there are other countries directly collaborating with China and Russia as well, in a move that is rocking the geopolitical boat.
Brussels says the problem with its vaccine rollout is supply. Rich nations bought enough of the first vaccines to be approved to inoculate their own populations many times over, promising to donate some to poorer nations, but in Europe at least, that hasn’t happened yet.
The UK’s success in being the first to roll out vaccines and inoculate more than a fifth of its population already has been bad for the EU’s image as well. Britain is capitalizing on this, touting it as a Brexit success story.
More than 138 million doses of various jabs have been administered worldwide, but at the current rate, it will take 6.5 years for everyone on the planet to be vaccinated, and as the World Health Organization stresses, it’s not over until everyone, everywhere, is protected.
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