European 'Windows' on Covid-19 Vaccination

I think it interesting for folk in Canada, Israel, the UK and the US (all jabbing away like crazy) to hear about Covid-19 vaccination programmes from a European perspective. Jean Quatremer (Brussels correspondent of Liberation) tries to repudiate the claim that a comparison of the EU and the UK mass vaccination programmes, is a "great advertisement for Brexit" (https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2021/feb/14/brexit-britain-eu-covid-vaccination-fiasco). He agrees that Britain got a head start by approving the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines in December 2020. He suggests, however, that in order to do so, they had to accept the terms offered by the pharmaceutical companies. The UK paid, he says, the asking price per dose and waived civil liability for adverse effects. I actually thought the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was initially offered at cost price (Oxford University certainly wanted this to be the case). Quatremer notes the UK has only given the 'required' 2 doses to a very small number of its citizens (fewer than in some later starting EU countries). He also suggests (as have I and others), that increasing the time interval between the 2 doses is questionable. Quatremer says it is important to note the EU is a simply a conferation (not even a federation). In spite of that they have agreed to pool their vaccine procurement, meaning that smaller, poorer EU members will not be disadvantaged (as they were in the fights over personal protective equipment, that were seen early in the pandemic). They collectively insisted on reasonable prices, civil liability of the pharmaceutical companies and production lines on EU territory. Quatremer notes that only 6 of the 160 applicant laboratories got contracts, for a massive total of 2.3bn shots. African countries are due to get any surplus jabs. Laurent-Henri Vignaud (University of Burgundy) has looked at the issue from a purely French perspective (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/15/french-distrust-vaccines-politicians). Vignaud notes that the French (in spite of Louis Pasteur) are the world's most 'vaccine hesitant' group. He suggests this fear of vaccines, is, at least partially, a consequence of immunisation and rising health care standards. These have made life-threatening epidemics seem a thing of the past. Vignaud suggests that the late development (compared to English-speaking nations) of anti-vaccination in France, is a historical enigma. He feels, however, that past government dithering (in 1994, over hepatitis B and in 2009, over H1n1 swine 'flu) have played a role. French society seems to have a dim view of vaccination advice from political 'elites'. Vignaud suggests the government is in danger seeming to dither its mass vacination programme for Covid-19. He thinks they are obsessing about vaccine hesitancy, rather than getting on with vaccinating the much larger numbers of folk, keen to get protection. I might add that the recent French decision to give only one dose to people who have had a Covid-19 infection, might also create a sense of uncertainty. But, as they say in English 'different strokes for different folks'.