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* German officials dump doses that weren't kept cold enough
* Holdup reported in Spain
* Questions raised in Italy over vaccine distribution
* EU expects 200 mln doses of Pfizer shot by Sept. 2021
By Francesco Guarascio and Arno Schuetze
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The EU campaign to
vaccinate Europeans against COVID-19 has got off to an uneven
start in what will be a marathon effort to administer shots to
enough of the bloc's 450 million people to defeat the viral
pandemic.
The vaccination drive kicked off at the weekend, with health
workers and residents of care homes across the bloc among the
first to get the Pfizer and BioNTech shots,
which must be kept at ultra-cold temperatures.
There were initial hiccups: officials in southern Germany
said on Monday they would dump around 1,000 doses after finding
they had not been properly chilled. Temperature controls also
caused a delivery delay in Spain.
In Italy, meanwhile, some politicians complained that
Germany - the EU's largest member state and home to BioNTech -
may be getting more than its fair share of shots.
The teething troubles are an early test of the EU's decision
to procure vaccines jointly, which has left the bloc lagging the
United States, Britain, Israel and Switzerland in approving and
administering the first vaccines.
The EU is due to receive its first 12.5 million doses of the
Pfizer vaccine by New Year's Day, with distribution of 200
million doses across its 27 member countries to be completed by
next September. The vaccine course requires two doses.
Talks are under way to agree on the delivery of an optional
further 100 million doses under the contract sealed with the two
companies, the EU says.
The EU has sealed agreements with other drugmakers besides
Pfizer, including Moderna and AstraZeneca, for
more than two billion doses in total. It wants to inoculate all
adults by the end of next year.
KEEPING COOL
As well as being the first COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered
across the EU, the Pfizer shot is also particularly tricky to
handle. For long-term storage it needs to be deep frozen at
around minus 70 Celsius (-112°F). It can be defrosted for a few
days before being used, but even then must be kept chilled.
In southern Germany, officials said they would not use some
shots after temperature trackers showed they may not have been
kept cold enough.
"There were doubts as to whether the cold chain was
maintained at all times," said Christian Meissner, district
administrator in the Bavarian town of Lichtenfels. "BioNTech
said that the vaccine was probably okay, but 'probably okay' is
not enough," he told Reuters TV.
In Spain, the delivery of a new batch from Pfizer was held
up by a day to Tuesday due to an issue with temperature controls
that has now been resolved, Health Minister Salvador Illa said.
Maria Asuncion Ojeda, a resident at Madrid's Ballesol Parque
Almansa nursing home, was still delighted to be an early
recipient of the Pfizer vaccine.
"I wanted to do it because it's the only way we can solve
this problem," the 87-year-old said on Monday, a day after Spain
began vaccinating care-home residents and their staff.
FAIR SHARES
The EU is distributing the jointly procured vaccines on a
pro-rata basis to the 27 member states based on their
populations, while European countries have also made their own
deals to buy extra doses separately.
In Italy, some politicians said Germany appeared to be
getting more than its fair share, at least during the highly
symbolic initial rollout.
“The accounts don't add up," Italian virologist Roberto
Burioni said on Twitter, pointing to reports in Germany that
first-day deliveries had totalled 150,000 doses while other EU
countries got just 10,000.
An official familiar with vaccine distribution in Germany
said that each of the 16 German federal states had received
10,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine ahead of the weekend start of
the inoculation drive.
An Italian journalist asked about the supplies at a German
government news conference. An official from the German health
ministry replied that Berlin had signed a separate deal for 30
million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
(Additional reporting by Silvio Castellanos, Guillermo
Martinez, Inti Landauro, John Miller, Maayan Lubell, Emilio
Parodi, Giselda Vagnoni and Benoit Van Overstraeten
Writing by Douglas Busvine
Editing by Peter Graff)
