Yet another inexcusable blunder in the purple-green vaccine saga: Belgium could have ordered many more vaccines

“This cannot be justified in any way.” MP Kathleen Depoorter is outraged by the report in the De Standaard newspaper that Belgium failed to order additional vaccines when the European procedure allowed it. “The nonchalance with which the vaccination campaign has been conducted is inexcusable.”

On Thursday, the De Standaard newspaper reported that Belgium could have ordered many more vaccines. Countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany bought not only their proportional share, but also picked up volumes not taken up by other countries. This means that Denmark, for example, has ordered twice as many vaccines as Belgium.

Kathleen Depoorter has been warning about this for months

Kathleen Depoorter has been warning for months about the pitfalls in the vaccination campaign. For example, she had already pointed out in the summer that Belgium was not taking an active role in the negotiations. At the start of the vaccination campaign in late December, Kathleen Depoorter drew the attention of the Federal Minister of Public Health and the Prime Minister to the fact that the Netherlands had received proportionally more vaccines than Belgium. Both Minister Vandenbroucke and Prime Minister De Croo disregarded her warning. The competent ministers also never attributed the Danish success to a higher order rate than that of our country.

Belgium has ordered fewer vaccines than Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany

“On countless occasions, both in committee and in plenary, I have drawn attention to the fact that our population has been allocated fewer vaccines than people in other countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. This is in fact also how the blunder of the 2.5 million forgotten vaccines came to light. Never did any of the ministers indicate that our country failed to order released vaccines where there was indeed a possibility of doing so.”

Entirely the responsibility of purple-green

For MP Kathleen Depoorter, this much nonchalance is inexcusable. “Our economy is at a standstill, the elderly and at-risk patients are risking their lives and young people, who took to the streets in droves yesterday, are begging for perspective. I have often pointed out the nonchalance with which the vaccination campaign has been conducted under the heading of the vaccine saga, the umpteenth saga in a row of the COVID-19 pandemic. This saga is entirely the responsibility of the purple-green government. I therefore expect a solid response.”