Europe’s late vaccinations, economic outlook declined due to the 3rd pandemic crisis

Europe, which cannot speed up vaccination due to a disruption in the supply and demand of the Corona 19 vaccine, faces a third pandemic, and the economic outlook is uncertain, and even the political landscape is shaking.

According to the Financial Times on the 21st (local time), the outlook for economic growth this year in Europe such as France, Germany and Italy is being lowered due to the third pandemic of Corona 19 and delays in vaccination. Dutch investment bank ING has lowered its economic growth forecast for the first quarter of this year from -0.8% to -1.5% for the eurozone (19 countries using euros). German investment bank Berenburg predicted that Eurozone growth this year would decline from 4.4% to 4.1% this year due to European countries’ blockade policies. US investment bank Morgan Stanley warned that if the blockade following the spread of Corona 19 continues, “(Europe) will lose another summer, and Spain and Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) may drop by 2-3%.” .

According to FT, the number of people vaccinated against Corona 19 per 100 people is 37 in the US and 43 in the UK, but only 12 in the EU.

There is also a growing voice of criticism of the EU’s vaccine policy. The failure of the vaccine policy appeared from the stage of contracting and distributing the vaccine to member states in large quantities. EU officials struggled with pharmaceutical companies to avoid being criticized for buying expensive, and signed contracts later than the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, the AstraZeneca vaccination could not speed up due to delays in the approval of the vaccine by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and concerns about side effects of blood clots. After EMA concluded on the 18th that it was “safe and effective” for the AstraZeneca vaccine, criticism was poured out for spreading the damage of Corona 19 due to a mistake in judgment when countries withholding vaccinations such as Germany, France, and Italy started vaccination.

The urgent EU has decided not to export the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in continental Europe to the UK for use only in continental Europe, Bloomberg News reported on the 21st. Reuters reported that, citing officials, “the EU has rejected the UK’s request to export the AZ vaccine produced in the Dutch factory.” Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, a professor at the City University of New York, said in a New York Times column on the 18th that “the EU’s vaccination failure was due to a fundamental flaw, including the bureaucracy and rigidity of the EU, which exacerbated the eurozone crisis 10 years ago.”

European citizens are exhausted from the COVID-19 blockade and are dissatisfied with the government. Germany was defeated by the ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) in two state legislative elections on the 14th. The’mask scandal’, in which the ruling party politicians received back money in exchange for the public work of procuring masks, caught the ankle of CDU. In Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned in January after taking responsibility for the failure to quarantine Corona 19.

Meanwhile, in Israel, where more than half of the people have been vaccinated against Corona 19, the number of new confirmed cases is falling sharply. The number of new confirmed cases in Israel decreased from 10,000 on January 20 to 3,000 on the 21st of last month, and recently fell to 500 to 600.

Israel began vaccinating Pfizer on December 20 last year, and so far, 60% of the population has completed one vaccination and 52% have completed two vaccinations. By next month, 75% of the population will complete the vaccination and reach the level of population immunity. Israel has been phasing out the blockade since the 21st of last month as vaccination progressed rapidly.

Reporters Lim Sun-young, Jung Young-kyo, and Kim Hong-beom [email protected]