As recently as last autumn, it was feared there would never be a Covid-19 vaccine. The United Kingdom, however, wagered otherwise. Long before the efficacy of the vaccine developed by Sarah Gilbert’s team at Oxford University and AstraZeneca had been established, the government ordered 100 million doses. This decision seems ever more prescient: Britain’s foresight has allowed it to vaccinate more than 24 million people, the highest share of the population of any major country after Israel and the UAE.
Europe, by contrast, which aspires to be a global superpower to rival the US and China, is the laggard of the developed world. While the UK has administered 38 vaccine doses per 100 people, the EU has managed just 11. Partly owing to this poor effort, Germany, France and Italy are now contending with third waves of Covid-19 as Britain slowly unlocks.
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