The EU are on a collision course with the UK over vaccines.

Mamie maybe some of your comments make others feel nauseous. The simple fact is France has only managed to vaccinate one third of the number of citizens that the UK has vaccinated. Why? Well ask yourself!

Jennifer and Urmston I agree absolutely.

Try looking at the data link I posted Urmstongran. You will see that something like 12,000,000 vaccines received so far and 11,000,000 used or reserved for second injections. Try looking at data rather than the made-up nonsense in the UK press.
And please don't keep saying you feel sorry for me. Frankly it makes me feel slightly nauseous.

Totally agree JenniferEccles the EU have cocked up big style and trying to blame everyone but themselves

'“It is an Airbus A320 crashing every day. Is it legitimate for a country like France to accept that?,” asked François Salachas, a neurologist at La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. “Daily cases are running above 40,000 and are still rising.'

Nb. Not my words.

It doesn’t matter how much you try to dress it up or make excuses, it is a fact that the EU Commission made a complete hash of their vaccine programme right from the start

They were late ordering, their regulators dragged their feet authorising vaccines, and recently of course we have had the shameful untrue accusations about the AZ vaccine not suitable or effective for older people.

Now, instead of concentrating their energies on trying to salvage the situation, they seem hell bent on trying to disrupt ours.

I was so pleased to read recently that we should soon be completely independent of the EU as production of the AZ vaccine is being stepped up here in Oxford.

Meanwhile I feel sorry for the EU residents.

They will not forget this at the ballot box, especially if certain party leaders promise an in/out referendum.

Stupid M Macron. Lovely JVT.

Hang on Ug, I'll get you a shovel so you can keep digging.

But that’s just it in a nutshell Mamie! 2 or 3 months behind - during an exponential rise in cases - and when vaccines in France are not being used? An ‘x’ number of millions in fridges? Beggars belief. Stupid M. Macron. As our lovely Jonathan van Tam said a few weeks ago ‘vaccines should be in arms, not fridges’.

I’m not being ‘superior’ either here. Nor jingoistic. I do truly feel sorry for French citizens as their figures are so high. Sorry to for my 85y old friend and neighbour in Spain, but their cases are nowhere near as high - in fact the figures are going down on the Costa del Sol. Maybe the hot sunny weather and being on the coast helps? It’s certainly why citizens from Madrid fled to their second homes there last May after the severe lockdown ended.

Of course the availability of vaccines make a difference. No question the roll-out has been slow and we are 2/3 months behind the UK. My cohort became eligible on Saturday. I have appointments for next week and four weeks after that.
As for Macron and hubris - try watching his TV speeches to the nation (in French). I hear leadership, clarity and apologies when he has not got things right.
It is clear that partial lockdown and curfew are not enough. That will change.
If you are interested in data, look here. A click on the département gives you the local numbers.
covidtracker.fr/

Of course it makes a difference UG. But to the disinterested observer it appears that you are intent on belittling Macron in an effort to show how superior we have been in the vaccine stakes. All the while with overblown concern for les pauvres francais.

Might be worth remembering that there is limited capacity for the manufacture of any of the vaccines and if the EU had done better on the procurement there would have been less for us.

Being proud of the success of our vaccination roll out isn't being superior. Appearing envious and seeking to potentially put peoples lives at risk, by wanting to block the delivery of vaccines to a country that's been a lot more successful and better organised than your own, is at the very least mean spirited, petty and juvenile.

Oh come on, you can’t deny it makes a huge difference? Not hubris at all. Now M. Macron ...

Wow, UG, such hubris.

Erm ... I think that was before vaccines were available?

Highest case numbers in the UK were 60,000 cases a day and over 1,000 deaths. I don't think we have anything to be superior about.

Well France recorded 41,869 new cases on Friday and 363 deaths. These are very bad numbers.

Urnstongram for the majority of this pandemic I have been frightened to be in Britain.

Catherine Hill was talking about Ile de France not the whole of France. (A bit like Greater London). Where we are ICU is 35% full. This is not gloating, it is an attempt to explain that the situation is very difficult in some areas but by no means everywhere. Your “quote” from Macron is a very dodgy translation of one line a contextualised speech. Try listening to Castex and Veran instead.

I am being sensible, not puerile. I quoted the French epidemiologist Catherine Hill! I also quoted what M. Macron said on Friday. I’m not in the least surprised French newspapers take a different slant on things. It’s so bad there that France is about to be put on a red list by us.

Paris was reported only last week to be struggling? ICUs were full and patients being transferred by plane to somewhere (can’t remember). Yes, if I lived there I would be frightened to catch COVID.

Thank you Whitewave. I guess having been away from the UK for so long it is easy to lose touch with what sensible people think. ?
We have been busy downsizing and moving house which has not been easy with Covid restrictions and a strict 6pm curfew (which oddly never gets mentioned in the comments about Macron doing nothing), but when I do look at the UK media I am ? at the bias, errors and misreporting - and not just the tabloids.
You are absolutely right - this is a global problem and selfish nationalism is totally inappropriate.

mamie ignore the silly triumphalism and puerile comments. I don’t know what else you expected?

It is in the world’s interest that the entire population of the globe is vaccinated as quickly as possible, and I am hoping that our neighbours get the barriers up in the form of vaccine ASAP. along with the rest of the world.

The U.K. of course has thrown everything at every potential viable vaccine and ordered far more than we need. Other countries have approached the issue differently, just as we approached lockdown and other covid related issues rather tardily, other countries locked down and tested very speedily.

Covid is a new disease, scientists throughout the world have worked together like never before and what a success it has been!

It is a pity politicians and others who faithfully follow their lead rather than use any brain they have can’t do the same.

We are neither furious or frightened. Macron's comments on the AZ vaccine were barely reported here and he has since totally supported the AZ vaccine. The Prime Minister has had it. The roll-out was slow to start but is gathering pace hugely now.
The "English" variant has caused a huge explosion of cases and there is pressure to increase the level of lockdown which will happen this week I suspect. In our bit of France medical services are not overwhelmed and routine care has continued as normal. The children have been in school since May. We are absolutely aware of the rules and what we can and cannot do.
Vaccine scepticism is an interesting one. There is a huge amount of evidence that people say they will not have it when asked by pollsters, but in fact they do. If you look at the actual data the curve of vaccines administered follows the availability of supplies pretty closely.
We are a couple of months behind the UK in the vaccine roll-out and that is a shame. But the fight against Covid is a marathon, not a sprint.
The lies, gloating and triumphalism of the UK press and the ill-informed comments of some people are the only things that upset me. .

“There won’t be a mea culpa from me. I have no remorse and won’t acknowledge failure,” said Mr Macron on Friday.

His priority was to attack the UK not protect his own citizens. Vaccine scepticism is already high in France so instead of looking to address that he made the problem worse.

The EU have made an unholy mess of this but they’ve been aided by idiots such as Macron egging them on.

If I lived in France I don’t know whether I’d be furious or frightened. Probably both.

Surely he will have to close the schools for an extended period. The cases are soaring amongst pupils.

Ellianne greater Paris and 19 departments are under strict constraint already. Mr Macron will not let this be called a lockdown.

It is dubbed the ‘third way’.

Mr Macron’s policy of delay has allowed the South African and Brasilian variants to top 10pc of cases in nine French departments, reaching 36pc in Moselle, 18pc in the Dordogne, and 16pc in the Vosges.

Elisabeth Borne, the labour minister, has been hospitalised with the South African variant. She called it a nightmare. “You have the feeling your whole body is going haywire,” she told Le Parisien.