There's a limited supply. Sure, Europe could have negotiated better, or could have chosen to pay more and get more vaccine doses faster. But that just means other countries get less doses. As long as production isn't ramped up enormously, we're dealing with a zero sum game. I think we can look at countries that manage to get a sufficient supply with admiration. Envy, yes.
I agree that in Belgium things are not as well organized as they should, as usual. They should for months they were preparing and plans would be ready and working by the beginning of January. But it turned out nothing was ready, debates about who to give the vaccine first were only starting instead of being started many months before. But at this point none of that really matters: it's simply not the bottleneck. Vaccination centers are ready for thousands of people per day, but only get 100 doses.
By the way I've read and heard about calls for volunteers for hospitals and vaccination centers. Vaccination centers don't really need many people now though because of the low supply.
If Europe were willing to pay higher prices it's possible that suppliers would have built more factories. In fact given the size of the EU and it's negotiating power that could have been a requirement of the deal, especially if the deal was made at the beginning of the pandemic, so I disagree that it has to be zero sum.
I agree that in Belgium things are not as well organized as they should, as usual. They should for months they were preparing and plans would be ready and working by the beginning of January. But it turned out nothing was ready, debates about who to give the vaccine first were only starting instead of being started many months before. But at this point none of that really matters: it's simply not the bottleneck. Vaccination centers are ready for thousands of people per day, but only get 100 doses.
By the way I've read and heard about calls for volunteers for hospitals and vaccination centers. Vaccination centers don't really need many people now though because of the low supply.