Observational studies are a lower standard of evidence than randomised controlled trials. Countries with higher levels of vaccine skepticism (eg the US) seem to be erring on the side of doing things by the book. The UK, by comparison, enjoys a high degree of trust in its healthcare system and can afford to be a little more gung-ho.

Who says AZ works around the world? It's the vaccine of the last resort, people will get it only if they can't get anything else because it's still better than nothing, at least for now.

And "better than nothing" is just temporary because AZ is very to completely ineffective against all virus mutations that are currently spreading.

If Russian and Chinese Sputnik and Sinovac vaccines were approved in the EU, we could save so many lives, but politics will rather try to force AZ than accept that they failed.

Because normally they can get away with a drawn out process that takes years, and if in one country some medication is curing cancer and in another country is not approved, nobody bats an eyelid.

It’s a big bunch of fiefdoms that all want to do their own checks and it is a political minefield. Witness the ridiculous situation with the vaccination shutdown last week. Has nothing to do with science, everything with public image and politics.

And it’s setting themselves up to fail as well because in this situation if a manufacturer has contracts with countries A and B and A pays more, they’ll just focus on approval for country A and delay approval for country B, so it’s perfectly defensible to only deliver to country A and not the country who isn’t going to use it anyway.

Unfortunately this is all smoke and mirrors that goes way over the head of the general public so there’s no backlash for failing.