COVID vaccine shortfall: The Abu Dhabi art dealer peddling jabs

An Abu Dhabi art gallery owner’s offer to procure COVID-19 vaccines for the Czech government highlights middlemen looking to cut side deals amid a global shortfall of jabs.

From a small office in an Abu Dhabi skyscraper, Ukrainian national Natalya Muzaleva and her Hungarian husband Istvan Perger run an art gallery, a real estate agency and an oilfield services company. They have also pursued another venture: selling COVID-19 vaccines into Europe. Muzaleva wrote a proposal to the Czech ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, reviewed by Reuters and dated February 24, offering to procure and sell at least one million doses to the Czech Republic of Covishield, the shot from Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca.