On Sunday, EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic appeared to blame the slow delivery of jabs earlier this year by the drugs giant for the slow uptake of vaccines across the continent. But Express.co.uk readers have ridiculed the Brussels official for pointing the finger over low uptake given that leaders in the bloc stoked fears of the vaccine in the first place.
Lilac Rose said that the EU is simply “playing politics”.
She said: “Have I got this wrong? They banned AstraZeneca from being used and promoted Pfizer. They have created their own catastrophic problems.”
Kevin Ralston added: “Didn’t Macron say the AstraZeneca vaccines was useless and not up to the standard of the EU’s medicines association?”
‘Leo5068’ was even less forgiving, accusing the EU of “trashing AZ and then blaming them”.
They added: “And Remainers think we should still be part of this shower.”
‘True brit’ said it is wrong for the EU to blame AstraZeneca for its current rise in Covid infections, adding that its own leaders – including French President Emmanuel Macron – should be held to account for “slagging off the vaccine and scaring people into not taking it”.
Links between the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine and certain side effects, including blood clots, were the subject of countless headlines across the continent earlier this year.
A poll of Sicilians in April suggested that as many as four in five people in the Southern Italian region would refuse the vaccine.
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They added: “They demanded AstraZeneca vaccines they were not entitled to while concurrently trashing them with scare stories. If they are in Covid trouble they brought it on themselves.”
‘TheViking4’ had much the same view, noting that “they reap what they sow”.
“These clowns have short memories… it wasn’t too long ago that they were refusing to use AstraZeneca vaccine saying it wasn’t safe!”
Distrust in the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has extended beyond Europe.
Australia announced in October that it will stop manufacturing the vaccine due to fears over side effects.
Even in the UK, the AstraZeneca jab isn’t being used in the vaccine roll-out to healthy children, with health chiefs opting for the use of the Pfizer vaccine instead.