EU is botching most important stage of Covid management, mass vaccination

Europe hasn't exactly covered itself in glory during the pandemic. The continent suffered a brutal first wave in the spring, as the new coronavirus revealed gaping holes in the health-care

European countries have long prided themselves on their strong welfare states, including public-health systems. They are also convinced that the state has a big role to play in fostering the recovery after the pandemic.

The painfully slow rollout of Covid-19 vaccines across the European Union is undermining any claims that government knows best, whether at a national or supranational level. Unless Europe gets its mass inoculation programs right, quickly, it will be hard to believe that its political model can deliver better results to its citizens than what’s available in the rest of the world.

Europe hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory