UK minister says 'everyone will get second dose' amid COVID-19 vaccine supply concerns

Responding to France’s threat of an export ban to block shipments of second vaccine doses to the UK, a minister in Boris Johnson administration told Sky News that the UK government "guarantees” that everyone will get their second dose within the 12-week period as promised. Speaking to host Sophy Ridge UK’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden dismissed France's warning that the EU could halt the passage of the UK's vaccine shipment citing that the Boris Johnson administration has a “long-term planning”. 

In a live television interview, Ridge asked the minister what his response was about the French foreign minister’s threats where he said that the UK will struggle with supplies for second doses but Brussels won't be blackmailed. Dowden replied, that everyone in the UK, regardless, will have their second dose of the vaccine administered as the government had planned ahead. “It's one of the most important considerations as we have rolled out the vaccine,” he said in a live-streamed address. Dowden continued, “Not only will we stick to our pledge on the first vaccine but we will ensure people get their second vaccine. So in all our planning, we have factored that in. It is one of the important things we can do.”

UK 'blackmailing' EU: French foreign minister

France’s foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian earlier stirred a controversy after she claimed that the UK was "blackmailing" the EU over its handling of coronavirus vaccine exports. She told local reporters at a conference that the EU was “scammed” by the UK as it trusted their country and dispatched the vials shipments. “We needed a cooperative relationship, we cannot deal this way,” she told the conference. France then called for the EU to implement an export ban against the UK as the country was looking forward to its  30 million AstraZeneca shipment arriving by the end of March. France added that the EU must not pay the price for the policies of the UK, and the country, taking great pride in vaccinating most of its population will suffer when shipment for second doses are blocked. “You cannot play like this,” Le Drian told reporters at the news conference.