The European Union, as well as some other countries, are now saying they do not recognize the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine for travel. That means many who have been vaccinated through a U.N.-backed effort could be barred from entering those nations. Accusing the European Union of considering some shots substandard, health experts and officials said the EU's move is discriminatory and unscientific.
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Hoping to meet the increasing demand for COVID-19 vaccine, one new vaccine production site recently opened in India, providing millions of people around the world with AstraZeneca COVID vaccines.
Despite health officials' efforts to prod millions of people into getting COVID shots through a U.N.-backed effort, many of them could find themselves barred from entering many European and other countries, all because those countries do not recognize the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine for travel.
Many are now describing the situation with which those people are faced as "immunized but banned".
AstraZeneca vaccine production sites can be found everywhere in the world, but the shots manufactured in the newly-opened vaccine production site in India are not regarded as standard by EU regulators.
EU regulators said AstraZeneca has yet to complete the necessary paperwork on the Indian factory, including details on its production practices, as well as quality control standards.
Having caught wind of the fact that those who got the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be barred from entering some nations, experts are now describing the EU's move as discriminatory and unscientific. They argued that the World Health Organization has inspected and approved vaccines made in that factory.
Health officials sided with the experts. They said the situation would make travel restrictions unnecessarily complicated, and render fragile economies nonplussed. In addition to that, health officials accused the European Union of purposely compromising genuine efforts to curb virus outbreaks, and undermining vaccine confidence via labeling some shots substandard.
The officially EU-endorsed vaccines include Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. But the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as many other vaccines used in developing countries, including those manufactured in China and Russia, are not on that list.
That's why China and Russia, and some other countries in which COVID vaccines were made, but not approved by the European Union, are crying foul. They accused the European Union of the politicization of COVID vaccines.
Earlier this month, the European Union introduced its digital COVID-19 certificate, which allows European Union residents to travel freely in the 27-nation bloc as long as they have been vaccinated with one of the four shots authorized by the European Medicines Agency, have a recent negative COVID test, or have proof that they recently recovered from the virus.
Reacting to experts' and health officials' accusation that the EU not recognizing some vaccines approved by the World Health Organization, the World Health Organization urged countries to recognize all vaccines it has authorized, including the Chinese ones. Hoping to set the record straight, the WHO said all of the WHO-approved vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective.
In a statement, the United Nations health agency said some countries' politicization of COVID vaccines is evidenced by their reluctance to recognize some WHO-approved vaccines. The agency also said countries which have declined to recognize WHO-approved vaccines are purposely undermining confidence in lifesaving vaccines, and compromising the safety of billions of people worldwide.
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