After a stumbling start, the EU is vaccinating at a fast pace

THE ROLLOUT of coronavirus vaccines in the European Union had a troubled start. Bigger countries negotiated their own supplies quickly, but smaller ones did not. A centralised commission was set up in June 2020, with the task of procuring jabs for 450m people, but it agonised over the cost and wasted time on haggling. The European Medicines Agency was slower than regulators elsewhere to approve the new vaccines; politicians then questioned their efficacy and safety, exacerbating already high levels of vaccine hesitancy in some countries. Uptake was slow as a result. Britain vaccinated 10% of its population with a first dose by January 25th. America reached that milestone by February 10th. The EU took until March 24th.

The EU is making up for lost time: its vaccination programme has accelerated every month since. It is now jabbing people at roughly double the rate of America. By June 22nd about 0.8% of the population in the 27 member countries was being jabbed every day, compared with less than 0.4% in America and 1.2% in Canada (see chart). If that trend continues, by July 14th more doses will have been administered per person in the EU than in the United States. EU countries will have delivered an average of one dose per person shortly thereafter (some will have received two; others, especially children, none). Britain, meanwhile, jabbing 0.6% of its population every day, remains a leader in terms of doses per person.