Sir, When AstraZeneca and Oxford University announced that their vaccine would be produced at cost there seemed some hope for the world. When the vaccine turned out to be both very effective and easy to transport and store, this hope looked like turning into reality; altruism trumping greed (Iain Martin, Mar 25). Subsequent events have shown that political ambition and greed can still outweigh the urgent need to protect us all. What other explanation can there be for repeated attempts to call the vaccine’s effectiveness into question? Europe is also in the absurd position of being locked in a contractual struggle with AstraZeneca for a vaccine that its leaders have successfully and wrongly sought to discredit with their citizens.

Source: The Times March 26, 2021 00:03 UTC