Britain’s approval of a coronavirus vaccine has occasioned a diplomatic dispute over which country deserves the most credit for the breakthrough.
“To everyone involved in this breakthrough: thank you,” U.K. business secretary Alok Sharma tweeted. “In years to come, we will remember this moment as the day the UK led humanity’s charge against this disease.”
That triumphant note, delivered against the backdrop of a messy divorce from the European Union (the terms of which remain under negotiation), grated on continental ears. A chorus of diplomats and expert analysts responded by emphasizing that the companies that produced the vaccine aren’t even British.
“I really don’t think this is a national story,” German Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andreas Michaelis tweeted Wednesday. “In spite of the German company BioNTech having made a crucial contribution[,] this is European and transatlantic.”
“The vaccine was designed in Germany by Turkish immigrants, developed by a U.S. pharmaceutical, and is produced in Belgium,” the Hague-based Clingendael Institute’s Rem Korteweg added. “But…sure….let’s get all ‘John Bull’ about this.”
Sharma saluted BioNTech and the U.S.-based Pfizer in his initial tweet, but his colleagues argued that the quick approval was down to Britain’s ability to sidestep the EU’s notorious regulatory red tape.
“Until earlier this year, we were in the European Medicines Agency,” U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told local media. “But because of Brexit, we’ve been able to make a decision to do this based on the U.K. regulator … and not go at the pace of the Europeans who are moving a little bit more slowly.”
That claim was contradicted by a British regulator, who acknowledged that the United Kingdom remains within the European Medicine Agency until Jan. 1. “We have been able to announce the supply of this vaccine using provisions under EU law,” Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency chief executive June Raine said Wednesday.
The leading advocates of Brexit continue to celebrate.
“We could only approve this vaccine so quickly because we have left the EU,” British lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg maintained, despite the British regulatory official’s comments. “Last month, we changed the regulations so a vaccine did not need EU approval, which is slower.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government beat EU counterparts to the approval by using an emergency mechanism that officials from other countries regard as risky.
“I consider this decision to be problematic and recommend that EU Member States do not repeat the process in the same way,” EU lawmaker Peter Liese, a German ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in response to the approval. “A few weeks of thorough examination by the European Medicines Agency is better than a hasty emergency marketing authorization of a vaccine.”
Johnson’s team tried to keep the focus on the vaccine rollout, rather than defend Hancock’s attempt to link it to Brexit.
“I think the important point is that we are the first country in the world to approve this vaccine, thanks to the hard work of the MHRA,” a spokesman for the prime minister said. “As I’ve said, it’s clear that we’re the first country in the world to approve this vaccine, and it’s obviously incredibly positive news.”
