How the Covid-19 vaccine crisis is putting the EU in danger

The botched coronavirus vaccine campaign will cause long-term harm to the EU's economy, says Matthew Lynn.

Ursula Von der Leyen
Ursula Von der Leyen: a lame duck president
(Image credit: © STEPHANIE LECOCQ/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Export controls may be imposed. Supplies are being held up at factories. Police in Italy are carrying out raids, looking for any evidence of stock being withheld or sent abroad. The grim farce of the European Union’s coronavirus vaccine crisis has taken twist after twist.

Supplies will soon pick up: so much has been ordered that the developed world at least will be awash with vaccines. The continent will finally be able to get on with inoculating its citizens by summer. But this will not end the long-term consequences of this crisis. They will run and run.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.