THE European Union is on the brink of coronavirus chaos as an Irish politician has involved the vaccine task force to be mandated to offer unused AstraZeneca vaccines in France and Germany to Ireland.

Fine Gael's Eoghan Murphy told Ireland's Minister of Health on the Vaccine Rollout Programme that there are 2.5 million AstraZeneca vaccines in France and Germany that aren't getting used. Mr Murphy acknowledged that those COVID-19 jabs might  help resolve Ireland's supply issues with the vaccine.

He said: "Minister, we all know that a scarcity of supply has been a problem with rolling out the vaccine.

"We also know that there's extra supply of the vaccines in other countries.

"I am asking you to not consult the task force but to mandate them to travel out and secure extra supplies of the vaccine for Ireland.

"The EU Commission has said we are liberal to make these deals."

Mr Murphy added: "We have 1,000,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Germany today, not getting used and that we have 1.5 million in France not getting used.

"So my question is to mandate the task force to travel and obtain those vaccine supplies for Ireland."

The Fine Gael politician also tweeted: "Other EU countries are securing additional vaccines independently, and therefore the EU says we are liberal to do so.


"So let’s, as a start, ask Germany & France for the 2m+ AZ vaccines sitting in their hospitals unused.

"They may say no, and that’s ok, but let’s ask."

Last week the Chairman of a committee that advised Germany that the AstraZeneca vaccine shouldn't tend to over-65s admitted that the country has problems getting people to require the jab.

Professor Thomas Mertens told the BBC's Today Programme that despite Germany holding 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the state had only been ready to administer 240,000 doses.

The German virologist added that there's a psychological problem within the state regarding the Oxford vaccine following Germany's initial advice which stated the jab shouldn't tend to over-65s.

The BBC's Nick Robinson asked: "How big a drag is it in Germany that people are reluctant to use the AstraZeneca vaccine?"

Professor Mertens said: "Yes it's a drag, there's little question.

"At the instant we've 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine in-store and only about 240,000 doses are given to the people, that's definitely a drag at the instant ."

He added: "We try to convince people to simply accept that vaccine and build up the trust for the vaccine within the population.

"But as you'll know, there's a psychological problem too and it'll take a while to succeed in this goal."