In his 1898 polemical masterpiece “J’Accuse” — an open letter to the French president about the injustice of the Dreyfus Affair — influential writer Emile Zola wrote: “It is a crime to mislead public opinion, to utilize for a deadly task this opinion which has been perverted until it becomes delirious.” Zola accused the French military hierarchy of unlawfully jailing army officer Alfred Dreyfus on trumped-up espionage charges (motivated by anti-Semitism), made even worse by the ham-fisted cover-up that followed. Zola’s blistering attack on the French elite, and its inept efforts to woo public opinion to its side, turned the tide of the Dreyfus saga in the officer’s favor. So seminal was Zola’s intervention that “j’accuse” has entered the English language, meaning a common expression of outrage and accusation against someone powerful. Given the EU’s present unmitigated failure in terms of its inability to secure enough vaccines for its people to definitively turn the tide of the pandemic crisis, as well as its subsequent, infuriating efforts to divert blame to anyone, everyone, but themselves, it is past time to update Zola’s eloquent, incendiary call to justice. J’accuse the EU of maliciously questioning the safety of the (Anglo-Dutch) AstraZeneca jab, even as it demands more of it. In terms of logic, this position is simply farcical. Undeterred by a total lack of scientific evidence, France (French President Emmanuel Macron has been particularly egregious), Germany and Italy halted the use of the jab on highly dubious “medical grounds,” only to almost immediately start using it again. This herky-jerky, panicky response to Europe’s vaccine rollout amounts to the worst of all possible worlds. Europe has wrongly — largely out of post-Brexit spite at the UK’s wildly successful vaccine rollout — and nonsensically denigrated the AstraZeneca jab’s safety, even as only 9 percent of the EU’s population has been vaccinated (compared to 41 percent in the UK). It is little surprise that this fear-mongering from the top, priming public opinion to suit the EU’s bankrupt ends, has had a devastating effect, as increasing numbers of Europeans now want nothing to do with a medicine that can save untold lives. A YouGov poll from this month reveals that trust in the AstraZeneca vaccine has plunged to a new low after the spurious row over whether it can cause blood clots. It is now seen as more unsafe than safe in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Less than one quarter of the French public believe the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, down fully 10 percent in the last month, while a decisive 61 percent think it unsafe. After lecturing all and sundry to “follow the science” of the pandemic in crafting policy responses, the EU has hypocritically forgotten to heed its own advice. At the same time as the EU and major European countries are badmouthing the AstraZeneca jab, hapless European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has threatened a blockade of vaccines manufactured in Europe for export unless the company does not first meet its supply obligations to European countries. In other words, “AstraZeneca is no good, but we want it.” Von der Leyen argues that AstraZeneca has delivered only 30 percent of the doses promised to Europe in the first quarter of 2021. Conveniently left unsaid are a number of devastating realities. European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides quietly noted that, as of now, the EU’s member states are sitting on vast reserves of 14 million doses of coronavirus vaccines. In other words, a lack of supply is not the problem. The problem is a lack of EU logistical competence. But the rot only begins there. J’accuse the EU of unconscionable delays in agreeing to vaccine contracts, while penny-pinching over costs. J’accuse Brussels of an excessively cautious approach to vaccine approvals, which has endangered far more lives than it has saved. J’accuse the European Commission (unlike the UK and US governments) of not investing alongside Big Pharma to help fund clinical trials, build supply chains and establish production facilities. J’accuse European countries of having national rollout campaigns that have been crippled by a combination of national and local red tape, undermining public confidence. J’accuse the EU of agreeing to cheaper “best efforts” contracts with vaccine manufacturers (cheaper contracts wherein they merely promise to try to meet agreed quotas), as opposed to the more expensive US and UK-negotiated “ironclad” contracts, whereby manufacturers are held to specific, measurable quantities of their vaccines being delivered at a specific time. After lecturing all and sundry to ‘follow the science,’ the bloc has hypocritically forgotten to heed its own advice. Dr. John C. Hulsman For all these reasons, despite its pathetic efforts to divert blame, no one must be fooled, not even for a second, by what is going on. Faced with the biggest challenge since the Second World War, the EU has catastrophically failed. Of course, there will be a massive political risk reckoning to all this: The possible diminution of Germany’s heretofore dominant Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party; the endangerment of the Macron presidency in France (and the possible rise of Marine Le Pen); and the crippling of Mario Draghi’s efforts to save Italy. All of this is real, and true, but it is for another day. For now, it is enough to simply say, “j’accuse.” Dr. John C. Hulsman is the president and managing partner of John C. Hulsman Enterprises, a prominent global political risk consulting firm. He is also senior columnist for City AM, the newspaper of the City of London. He can be contacted via chartwellspeakers.com. Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view