Trying to Make Sense Out of This EU-UK 'Fight'?

 If you try to view it through German public TV or the BBC, it seems to involve 700 pages of material and made extremely complicated.  

I sat through a simple N-TV news production this morning which drew the whole fiasco down to thirty simple lines.

Back in the spring of 2020, with hype driving vaccination chatter and how it'd come to save lives....there were angles of  process going on.  There was the German-process-for Germans, and the EU-process-for-all-of-Europe. The Germans were not going to be hindered.  They settled early on with BionTech.

The EU?  They were extremely hesitant.  When they did step forward....their 'betting' was set upon Sanofi (a French company) and Janssen (a Belgium company).

A curious thing happened as late summer came on....neither Sanofi or Janssen were doing well in the lab tests.  BionTech?  They were doing fantastic.

Another curious thing happened in the month or two ahead of these results....the EU signed a contract for 500 million bottles from Sanofi/Janssen.  

So steps in the Brit company....AstraZeneca.  Positive results.  

Looking at results....the US and the UK both moved ahead in late July (100 million doses for the US and 30 million for the UK). 

The EU?  They simply sat there.  Either they were hoping that Sanofi or Janssen would recover via later tests, or that they just couldn't go sign up with a deal with a Brit company.  Nothing much is admitted by the EU over the late-stage contract or why their strategy went this way.  

So in mid-November...the EU finally reacted and did a contract.  300 million doses.

My humble view?  I think literally everyone within the EU top level were set to the French Sanofi or Belgium Janssen solutions.  

This stumbling around now?  Basically some deflective 'act' to pretend that poor management at the top level of the EU is not possible.  

If this type of 'act' had occurred in Germany?  There would be a public outcry and mass calling for Spahn (the Health Minister) to be fired.  But remember the key gimmick of the EU mechanism....no one ever gets fired for anything.