Austria Wants Covid Vaccine Contracts Renegotiated
Austria's Health Minister Johannes Rauch wants to renegotiate existing CoV vaccine contracts. Rauch said he wants to negotiate more flexibility with vaccine manufacturers at the informal meeting of EU health ministers in Prague.
The goal of renegotiating with vaccine makers, Health Minister Rauch said, is to call off vaccines as needed, delay some for next year until fall and also be able to pass on doses. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
The goal of these renegotiations, according to ORF, is to call off vaccines as needed, postpone a portion for next year until fall and also be able to pass on doses.
According to ORF, Rauch said a vaccine shortage is not expected "Everyone currently has too much vaccine," Health Minister Rauch said. According to Rauch, it is now much clearer to estimate how high the demand is. Rauch hopes for results with manufacturers "in the fall," according to ORF, as talks so far have been "constructive."
According to Rauch, Austria currently has around 17 million doses in stock, while at the same time there are 6.8 million partially vaccinated people. According to ORF, Austria also needs a buffer, Rauch said.
The next delivery had already been ordered in December 2021. This involves "twelve million doses, of which two million are Moderna and ten million are Pfizer," and "more flexibility" is needed here, the health minister said, according to ORF.
"Austria has procured vaccines to the tune of 760 million euros so far," Rauch said, according to ORF. However, he said, this must be seen about the other costs of the pandemic. According to ORF, Rauch cited "3.4 billion euros for testing," and "one week of lockdown costs one billion euros."