Scepticism of vaccines is declining in Austria

Slovakia’s neighbours will accept the bilingual vaccination certificates Slovakia started issuing on 22 May. However, Austria will only accept certificates on vaccines registered by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and World Health Organisation (WHO). “I’m glad that we’ve had initial…

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has been awarded a media freedom prize by a German publisher at the Ludwig-Erhard-Summit, a move which leading Austrian politician Christian Deutsch has called “absurd” and accused Kurz of pushing towards an “Orbanisation of Austria”. “Kurz…

Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (ČSSD, S&D) has denied accusations that he planned to exchange information about the involvement of Russian agents in the 2014 ammunition depot blast in return for 1 million Sputnik V vaccines…

The US administration has backed lifting patents of COVID-19 vaccines in order to speed up vaccination of those in need worldwide. Europe, until a couple of months ago, had been reluctant to this option and it is unclear if it will follow the US example.

The European Union has not made any new orders for AstraZeneca vaccines beyond June when their contract ends, European Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Sunday (9 May), after the EU signed a deal with Pfizer-BioNTech.