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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Wow, UG, such hubris.

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

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.

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.

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/

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.

Stupid M Macron. Lovely JVT.

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

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.

'“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.

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

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.

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.

Basically the EU and it’s member states have c***ed up the vaccine procurement and roll out.
The UK thought on its feet, ordered multiple vaccines by the millions and so far are doing a splendid job!

Just popping up here to lend some support for Mamie and remind some others that gloating isn't a good look.

I feel sorry for my French goddaughter whose own children may soon be stopped from attending school. I know how detrimental that is for children from the experiences if my own DGC.
I feel sorry my French friend of 40+ years who had cancer yet still hasn't had her vaccine.
No superiority, no triumphalism, just worried for those I care about in France.
You only have to dip into ex pats' forums on Facebook to read how concerned many people are about the lack of vaccinations.

No one is denying, least of all the EU that wrong decisions were made on the procurement of vaccine. One of the issues I think was that they had no understanding of how quickly the scientists would move and so thought that they had plenty of time in which to get their act together.

Well, they were wrong in that assumption, perhaps resulting in many unnecessary deaths.

That is a given.

We made wrong assumptions at the beginning of the pandemic , and made wrong decisions over lockdown, preparedness etc. Perhaps resulting in unnecessary deaths.

That is a given.

No one has got it completely right.

Triumphalism has no place in this. It is in such poor taste.

There is no triumphalism or gloating from me, I have family and close friends in EU and beyond who have absolutely no idea when they will get their vaccine, which is causing great concern for us all.

GrannyGravy13

There is no triumphalism or gloating from me, I have family and close friends in EU and beyond who have absolutely no idea when they will get their vaccine, which is causing great concern for us all.

Pleased to hear it.