Ep 192: AstraZeneca limbo — Vaccine export bans — COVID disinformation

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 204 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the European Commission proposes a digital certificate to allow for safe travel around the EU in the corona era, we debate how much that matters if enough Europeans aren't vaccinated. POLITICO's Andrew Gray, Rym Momtaz, Matthew Karnitschnig and Annabelle Dickson discuss whether politics or science are behind recent decisions to suspend the AstraZeneca vaccine. They also look at the EU's threat to put the brakes on vaccine exports to countries such as the U.K. that Brussels says aren't playing fair when it comes to sharing jabs. Matt gives his take on last weekend's regional elections in Germany — and why they suggest Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats may struggle to hold onto power in Berlin as she leaves the stage. POLITICO's Eline Schaart breaks down the results of the parliamentary election in the Netherlands and what they mean for the country's approach to the EU. And Mark Scott, POLITICO's chief technology correspondent and author of The Digital Bridge newsletter, explores the world of COVID-19 disinformation and why Big Tech platforms and lawmakers are struggling to combat it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	With this digital certificate, we aim to help member states reinstate the freedom of movement in a safe, responsible and trusted manner.
0:16.5	Welcome to EU Confidential, the number one European politics podcast. I'm Andrew Gray, Politico's
0:22.7	EU editor in Brussels. And you just heard European Commission President Ursula of Wonderlyne
0:28.0	announcing plans to move forward with a digital certificate that would allow for safe movement
0:33.6	around the EU for people who can prove they've been vaccinated or can prove their COVID-free.
0:39.9	The Commission doesn't want to call it a vaccine passport, but you can bet that's what it will
0:44.4	be called anyway. And of course, for it to work, you need to have lots of people who've
0:49.0	actually been vaccinated. And that's where the EU continues to struggle. We've had two big developments on that front in the past few days.
0:57.6	Many EU countries have suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precaution after reports of blood clotting,
1:05.5	even though the EU's own medicines agency and the World Health Organization have both indicated it's okay to keep using
1:12.6	the jab. And the EU has threatened to stop vaccine exports to countries such as the UK
1:18.4	that it doesn't believe are trading fairly and freely when it comes to vaccines.
1:23.5	If we have a look at the epidemiological situation, it is getting worse.
1:29.4	And we know that we need to accelerate the vaccination rates.
1:34.4	And this is why we need to ensure that there is reciprocity and proportionality.
1:42.2	If the situation does not change, we will have to reflect on how to make
1:47.3	exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness. We'll debate all of that
1:56.6	in just a moment with our podcast panel, as well as follow up on the results of the regional elections
2:02.5	last weekend in Germany and this week's general election in the Netherlands. We'll also take a deep
2:09.0	dive into COVID-19 disinformation and the challenges policymakers and tech platforms face when trying to
2:16.4	combat it. But first, let's get to that podcast panel.
2:21.0	So the band is back together.
	...

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