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Europe s Vaccine Disaster
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Seeking to Duck Responsibility
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is trying to get out of the firing line as anger grows over the EU s botched vaccine rollout. It s not the first time in her career that she has sought to evade responsibility.
Hans Lucas / Imago Images
When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen talks about politics, there is never a shortage of superlatives and grandiloquence. Until recently, that was also true when she was talking about the extremely sensitive issue of vaccines.
In late November, von der Leyen gushed about the contracts the European Union had signed with various producers, saying it meant that Europeans would have access to the most promising future vaccines under development against the coronavirus. When it became clear in December that the first people in the EU would be vaccinated soon after Christmas, she even inject