Australia’s shipment has been seized as a show of strength in the European Union’s dispute with AstraZeneca over the speed and quantity of the doses shipped to the Continent. This dispute is made worse by the vaccine’s image problem in Europe,where leaders such as France’s Emmanuel Macron have openly doubted its efficacy and Germany is considering donating unwanted doses to the homeless.

According to Italian dailyLa Repubblica,Draghi told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday that they needed to “suffocate” Big Pharma to make them deliver on their contractual obligations.

So he could look at Australia,where infection rates are in single digits andauthorities are confident our local production can make up the shortfall,and see an easy way to make his point,claiming he’s saved the vaccines for poor Italy.

That isn’t the case — those doses will be shared around 27 countries — but Draghi,abetted by the approval of the EU,can look like he’s doing something,even if the real challenge is the hidebound bureaucracy and poor practices in his own backyard.