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

And calling people stupid or insane is really not going to help. I mean people can do that, free speech and all that, but it will just make the situation worse.

Alegrias
I think we all have an agenda. The agenda we all have is that as many people as possible get vaccinated as soon as possible. It’s the only way that all of us will get back to some semblance of normality. We all need everyone, wherever they live, to get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible. The world is lucky that so many scientists have worked so hard to give us back our lives. To have some people rejecting a vaccine because they’ve been terrified against it is simply immoral in my opinion.

The irony is that a care home worker in the UK could have been substituted for the middle aged lady in Paris, and would also have refused the vaccine. Pot, kettle, black?

There was a piece on radio 4 from a vaccine centre in the U.K. where the nurse in charge said some people turned up and refused to have the AZ vaccine and made another appointment in the hope it would be the PZr vacccine on another day. It’s not just furriners folks.

I needed a CT scan to check for blood clots when I had Covid because Covid causes blood clots. People have died from blood clots caused by Covid.

Ug, you're starting to look as though you have an agenda...

We understand that you think the French are all running away from the AZ vaccine as fast as their legs will carry them. We understand that you think Macron is almost solely responsible for generating false news about the vaccine and turning his people against it. We also understand that you think anything a leader from an EU country does is principally to get back at the Brits.

Really, we've got it. You can let drop. We've got it.

p.s. - in case anyone was worrying about it, the image is from the Telegraph

And for anyone to terrify people about vaccines during a pandemic which has killed so many people, it is frankly despicable.

Incidentally when I first went into hospital and after a chest X-ray was told I had Covid pneumonia, I can say truthfully I was very afraid. I knew that Covid pneumonia is what often kills people with Covid. I was also very afraid when told I may have blood clots in my lungs and needed a CT scan to check. Thankfully after the scan it transpired that I didn’t have blood clots in my lungs and I was very relieved to hear that. I know the fear that having Covid brings, and therefore I cannot understand any sane person turning down a vaccine. People should be afraid of Covid, not vaccines.

Paris civil protection volunteers Kathlyn Millot and Sebastien Arribas take to the streets of the city as they try to persuade people to have the AstraZeneca jab CREDIT: Henry Samuel
Two Parisian municipal employees approach a middle-aged woman in a run-down district of the capital's eastern 20th arrondissement.

"Good afternoon Madame, are you over 55? Would you like a vaccine?"

"Which vaccine?" the woman asks, cocking an eyebrow.

"AstraZeneca."

"Non, merci."

I’ve been in hospital with Covid Mamie, on oxygen for twelve days, and receiving many drugs and treatments. If someone had asked if I wanted a vaccine, I would have bitten their hand off for it.
Someone has done a good job of terrifying many people about vaccines. Anyone who has experienced Covid as I did, and would still refuse a vaccine must be either stupid or terrified.

GrannyGravy13 I saw the summary, I felt it was a shame that it didn’t go back to the beginning of March 2020 and compare with other countries.

Maybe the lady with Covid, in hospital and on oxygen, wasn't too pleased about someone turning up to ask her what flavour vaccine she would like?
She might or might not be stupid, but perhaps not the best circumstances under which to make assumptions?

I do think we should question where some of the ideas on here are coming from, as opinion is thrown about with no reference to what it's based on.

The information I posted came from Worldometer.

Our sources include Official Websites of Ministries of Health or other Government Institutions and Government authorities' social media accounts. Because national aggregates often lag behind the regional and local health departments' data, part of our work consists in monitoring thousands of daily reports released by local authorities. Our multilingual team also monitors press briefings' live streams throughout the day. Occasionally, we can use a selection of leading and trusted news wires with a proven history of accuracy in communicating the data reported by Governments in live press conferences before it is published on the Official Websites.

One lady who really stood out for me, was in hospital with Covid on oxygen and still vehemently saying she will not have the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

Unfortunately there’s still no cure for stupid!

The data for vaccines shows roughly 8.5 Pfizer, 800,000 Moderna and 2.5m AZ.
This reflects the proportion of vaccines received. I don't have the exact figure, but I think AZ have only delivered about 25% of the contract.
Strange that the BBC picked on that person GrannyGravy13 rather than the people queuing up at the doctors and pharmacies for AZ.

*dry should be very

There was a 10 minute dry informative piece on President Macron and the roll out of vaccines in France on the BBC Breakfast News this morning.
One lady who really stood out for me, was in hospital with Covid on oxygen and still vehemently saying she will not have the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

I agree PippaZ. Just suppose somebody on Gransnet lives in one of the places mentioned by Urmstongran as having "not much vaccine roll-out" and believes that (mis)information. What might the consequences be?
I am not frightened about living in France, but I am increasingly frightened by opinion from dubious sources being touted as fact.
I have very little time for things like vaccine scepticism, but I have even less time for political corruption being shrugged off and endless tolerance extended to politicians for personal misdemeanours which would bring the full fury of media attention to members of the opposition.
Whatever happened to unbiased opinion, evidence and facts?

Well I haven’t been on the internet looking at weird sites! All my information has come from the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
?
If I can find these articles anyone can!

I sometimes feel some sort of separatist message is being peddled in posts on GN. As we now know, Throughout 2018, hardline Brexit campaigns were boosted by the international conspiracy theory networks of QAnon., I do think we should question where some of the ideas on here are coming from, as opinion is thrown about with no reference to what it's based on.

So far I have heard nothing that convinces me The EU are on a collision course with the UK over vaccines. That is not to say that there aren't problems all over the world leading to very tired politicians and the occasional bad decisions but that has happened here just as much, if not more, than it has in any other country.

(The Qanon information can be found in so many articles I suggest you just search for it.)

Ug where are you getting your information that Paris, Calais and Nice are not getting vaccines? Are you looking at the percentages on Covid Tracker? I can't see any evidence for your claims in the actual data? Actually they are higher than some other places.
Dinahmo if you know anyone who is struggling to find an appointment there is a new tool called "Vite ma Dose". It searches doctolib, santé.fr etc and finds the first one available for you. I used Doctolib, it was very quick and easy once my group became eligible.

I’n not sure why Southwark was picked out - I live in a neighbouring borough and wasn’t scared at Christmas. I have close relatives in France and Italy and they aren’t scared either. Concerned and careful, yes, but so are we even with the vaccine. The older Italian relatives have had the vaccine now and the older French relatives have an appointment next week so are catching up. Don’t speak fot others and their emotions.

Dinahmo just hoping that it's not the Russian one!
It isn’t being used in France (yet?).

Urm PS I lived close to Brockwell Park.

Urm The chances are that you wouldn't be living in those cities, so you would have no reason to be scared. If I still lived in London, I would have been scared before the vaccine roll out. If I still lived in Suffolk, I'd probably be scared because of the second home owners and others coming out for Easter. It's 12 years since I left Suffolk and I remember the queues to get to Walberswick at a Bank Holiday and the queues to get into Woodbridge, my nearest town, on an Easter weekend 30 odd years ago.We were lucky that we didn't need to go to the tourist hotspots at the height of the season.