A vaccine feud between Italy and Australia
Italy blocked a shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from being flown to Australia on Thursday, making good on the European Union’s threats to clamp down on exports of the shot and ratcheting up a global tug of war over vaccines.
The Italian foreign ministry said that it had made the request to block the shipment, which consisted of more than 250,000 doses, and that the E.U. did not object. It is the first time that a member country used new E.U. regulations to halt vaccine exports.
A ministry spokesperson said Italy made the request because Australia is classified as a “non-vulnerable” country and Europe is experiencing a shortage of vaccines and shipment delays.
Context: Under the E.U.’s new controls, any export of doses manufactured within the bloc can be halted unless the maker first meets its supply obligations to the member countries.
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In other developments:

■ Steps by Texas and Mississippi to ease coronavirus restrictions raised worries, with President Biden calling the end to mask mandates “Neanderthal thinking.”

■ The European Union drug regulator announced that it was beginning a rolling review of the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine, after Hungary authorized it for use and the Czech Republic announced it would do the same.

■ The E.U. gave a district in Austria an extra 100,000 vaccine doses for anyone over 16 in an attempt to stamp out a surge driven by the variant first identified in South Africa.
The New York Times
Me: The best 3 appear to be Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson’s 1 dose.
Anything else is not much good, according to previous New York Times News about Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Australia is a big island and they can control Coronavirus a lot easier than America or England can