A healthcare worker prepares a dose of Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Photographer: Anita Pouchard Serra / Bloomberg
Photographer: Anita Pouchard Serra / Bloomberg
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she is ready to use the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in Germany, while trying to allay concerns about her splashy Covid-19 vaccination program.
Merkel said in a rare television appearance on Tuesday that the Russian shot could be used to protect people in the European Union, as long as it was approved by the European Medicines Agency.
“I was talking to the Russian president about it,” she said.
It was the first time she had been interviewed for the first time since June, when Germany approved measures to compensate for the economic consequences of the pandemic. She spoke shortly after medical journal The Lancet published an interim analysis of an advanced clinical trial showing that Sputnik V offers strong protection against Covid-19.
“We received good data from the Russian vaccine today,” Merkel said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD. “Every vaccine is welcome in the EU, but only after it has been approved by the EMA.”
The chancellor and her government came under fire after forcing Germany to hand over responsibility for negotiating vaccine contracts to the European Commission. Following Delays in delivery are blamed for the delayed distribution of shots, with Germany – and its European partners – lagging behind countries such as the US and Britain.
Read more: Merkel’s handprints are everywhere in Germany’s vaccination steps
Merkel also reiterated her promise that all Germans would receive a first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of September, as long as drugmakers meet their delivery obligations.
Even if new shots are not approved, there will be adequate supplies despite earlier delays, she said Monday after crisis talks with pharmaceutical executives, cabinet ministers, the country’s 16 prime ministers and EU commission officials.
Germany vaccinated about 3 out of every 100 people, compared to 10 in the US and nearly 15 in the UK, according to the Bloomberg vaccine detection. While Britain and America had started immunizing a few weeks earlier thanks to faster approval, the implementation of Germany was hampered by the issues.
Read more: Merkel makes a promise for the vaccination of the summer with ‘difficult weeks’ in sight
Olaf Scholz, Minister of Finance, Tuesday acknowledgeindicated that the EU should order more Covid-19 vaccines, while defending the bloc’s agreement to negotiate jointly with drug companies.
“We have made a conscious decision to get the vaccines together and distribute them fairly,” Scholz said in a virtual forum on Europe. “But we must also be critical and acknowledge that more had to be ordered, ”he added, emphasizing his support for a common European strategy.
Scholz said the priority is to speed up delivery and “rapidly expand vaccine production capacity with all the resources at our disposal.”
– With help from Iain Rogers and Daniel Schaefer