Coronavirus UK vaccine news – Fury as EU’s Ursula Von Der Leyen threatens to BLOCK AstraZeneca jabs reaching Britain

THE EU sparked fury today by threatening to block lifesaving AstraZeneca vaccines reaching the UK.

Shameless EU chief Ursula Von Der Leyen issued the chilling threat this morning, saying Europe would intercept UK-bound AstraZeneca shipments unless if was given more doses of the vaccine itself.

In a shocking intervention today, she said she would use whatever “tools” possible to ensure Europe receives the number of doses it believes it is entitled to – including effectively putting thousands of British lives at risk.

Boris Johnson official spokesman quickly fired back saying “It remains the case we would expect the EU to continue to stand by its commitments.”

The row from Europe being painfully slow to place orders of vaccines – including AstraZeneca – last year, putting them at the back of queue to receive vaccines supplies.

The bloc has also presided over a bungled rollout that has seen EU countries fall well behind the likes of the UK and Israel in terms of percentage of the population vaccinated.

Even worse, shameless disinformation from the likes of French president Emmanuel Macron about AstraZeneca’s effectiveness has seen Europeans reluctant to take it, so the EU can’t even use the supplies it does have.

And this week more than a dozen countries suspended the rollout of AstraZeneca jabs over completely unsubstantiated claims the jabs could cause blood clots – something global experts insist is not the case.

France and Italy later resumed the AstraZeneca rollout, admitting the suspension was, unsurprisingly, a politically motivated act that has put the lives of thousands of not-yet-vaccinated people at risk.

All this comes as covid rages on the continent, with Italy forced to enter yet another national lockdown this week, Germany’s Angela Merkel suffering a political bloodbath over her handling of coronavirus and France having to airlift patients from overwhelmed Paris.

Meanwhile in the UK more than 25 million people have now had their first dose of the vaccine, schools have returned and our lockdown roadmap looks set for all lockdown measures to be lifted by June 21.

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