“Pharmaceutical companies and vaccine developers have moral, societal and contractual responsibilities which they need to uphold,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told reporters on Wednesday. “The view that the company is not obliged to deliver [vaccines] … is neither correct nor acceptable.”
“We are in a pandemic. We lose people everyday. These are not numbers, they are not statistics, these are persons, with families, with friends and colleagues,” she added.
Germany marked one year since the virus arrived on Wednesday, with the country showing no signs of reduced infections. Portugal reported a record number of daily deaths in the past 24 hours. Strict lockdowns are in force in countries around the bloc.
The harsh rebuke from the European Union came after AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said the company had agreed to make its “best effort” to deliver the doses EU countries had ordered but was not contractually committed to a schedule. In a statement, AstraZeneca said it…