All eyes now turn to Brexit.

The Guardian explains why we have been able to access the vaccine first.

Now I'm sure that this paper is anti Brexit

But hey ho

Until 1 January 2021, licensing decisions on medicines and vaccines would have been taken by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which was based in London until Brexit. But the UK government passed regulations to allow the MHRA to give emergency authorisation to Covid vaccines if manufacturers had sufficient data to apply before the end of the year.

So this government, who I did not vote for, seems to have done something right

I may be old fashioned, but when I know someone is likely to lie, I can never trust them again.

I trust the expert

"We have been able to authorize the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law, which exist until the 1st of January.
So I hope that clarifies the point about the European relationship."
Dr June Raine CEO UK MHRA.

Yes, I am well aware of what Dr. June Raine said

And I'd have thought we all know that we're still acting under European law.

So,why do you think that we are getting this vaccine before anyone else?

Why hasn't the EU taken it?

Is it all part of some evil plan to infect us all as some posters seem to believe?

We're being used as some experiment?

CNN reported today, that all eyes will be on U.K. to see what issues arise etc as we are the first, although the USA is only about a week behind. I suspect one if the reasons being that their equivalent to our MHRA is held, unlike ours, in full public view and scrutiny so will be watched by all Americans.

Every batch sent to the U.K. will be tested by the MHRA.

Why hasn't the EU taken it?

They haven't chosen to. Though apparently the action taken by the UK's MHRA could, under EU law, have been taken by any other member state who wanted to.

We're being used as some experiment?

Perhaps our great and glorious leader has urged the MHRA to make us truly world beating at something...

Well who knows, MaizieD

There is plenty of information out there
which suggests that we have been able to act faster because of our regulations that allowed emergency approval by MHRA

EMA isn't meeting until after Christmas.

The European Medicines Agency will meet on 29 December to decide if there is enough data about the safety and efficacy of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for it to be approved.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-covid-vaccine-approval-b1764467.html

Don’t forget that the EU has, using its enormous economic muscle purchased sufficient for all its members.

There will be no hold up once the EU begins it vaccination programme.

We can only hope that Brexit won’t be a major issue.

We can only hope that Brexit won’t be a major issue.

Quite agree

It t is indisputable that the UK has stolen a march by freeing itself from the EU’s policy orbit and going its own way under the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the teeth-arm of the EU system in its day.

There was much outrage in anti-Brexit circles when Boris Johnson shunned the EU’s vaccine alliance. He was accused of reckless nationalistic infantilism. It was said that the UK would not have the great power ‘clout’ to obtain global vaccines at scale. Events have not played out remotely as they expected.

The UK’s approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine clears the way for immunisation of health care staff as soon as Monday.

The armed forces - vaccination veterans from Africa - will deploy their logistical muscle to set up injection hubs and a cold storage chain in the biggest military operation since the Falklands War.

While Europe’s calendar is not yet clear, the EU regulator has pencilled in a decision at the end of December. That is a wasted month. The roll-out will then be painfully slow across Southern Europe.

Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, said jabs will start around January 23-26 and this long interlude will require “more weeks of sacrifice”. Given the lag effects of two doses and the time it takes to make inroads into the population, this dooms Italy to draconian curbs through the peak winter months if it is to avert the dreaded terza ondata.

France will not vaccinate until the New Year and will then run into the anti-vax brigade, a movement that has mushroomed since the H1NI vaccine narcolepsy cases in 2009, and lately fed by the ever wilder utterings of Didier Raoult - once a microbiologist.

An IPSOS survey found that 46pc of the French will refuse a jab, compared to Spain (36pc), Italy (35pc), Germany (30pc) and the UK (21pc).

British willingness to trust their scientists is a trump card as we go into the next phase. We will reach herd immunity and economic reopening that much faster.

Portugal, Spain, and Greece hope to vaccinate in early January, but by then Pfizer supplies and dry ice will be in acute demand, and stockpiles getting shorter. Whatever happens there is likely to be a strange few weeks as Europeans watch the UK vaccination campaign, while their own countries are frozen in immobilism and people become ever more angry over shut restaurants and lockdown curbs.

Apologies to all for my bitty posting. I’m having problems with my iPad.

That was an article from the Telegraph.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.

While Europe’s calendar is not yet clear, the EU regulator has pencilled in a decision at the end of December. That is a wasted month. The roll-out will then be painfully slow across Southern Europe.

Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, said jabs will start around January 23-26 and this long interlude will require “more weeks of sacrifice”. Given the lag effects of two doses and the time it takes to make inroads into the population, this dooms Italy to draconian curbs through the peak winter months if it is to avert the dreaded terza ondata.

France will not vaccinate until the New Year and will then run into the anti-vax brigade, a movement that has mushroomed since the H1NI vaccine narcolepsy cases in 2009, and lately fed by the ever wilder utterings of Didier Raoult - once a microbiologist.

An IPSOS survey found that 46pc of the French will refuse a jab, compared to Spain (36pc), Italy (35pc), Germany (30pc) and the UK (21pc).

British willingness to trust their scientists is a trump card as we go into the next phase. We will reach herd immunity and economic reopening that much faster.

Portugal, Spain, and Greece hope to vaccinate in early January, but by then Pfizer supplies and dry ice will be in acute demand, and stockpiles getting shorter. Whatever happens there is likely to be a strange few weeks as Europeans watch the UK vaccination campaign, while their own countries are frozen in immobilism and people become ever more angry over shut restaurants and lockdown curbs.

So it seems that Brexit has done the UK population a good turn, we get to use this vaccine first, then the US then later on EU countries.Cutting through red tape often has advantages.

It's a load of B*llocks. The only reason that the UK has early approval is that it can do this under the EU regulations by which it is bound until 31st December.

You're falling for the lies... again.

From the CEO of the UK MHRA, which you appear to have not bothered to read when itt was posted earlier:

We have been able to authorize the supply of this vaccine using provisions under European law, which exist until the 1st of January.
So I hope that clarifies the point about the European relationship."

Dr June Raine CEO UK MHRA.

It sounds as if we owe Boris a huge round of applause for ensuring that we are at least a month ahead of other European countries.

He hinted at something during his press conference earlier, following a question from a journalist, but was careful to appear modest.

Well done PM.

I second that JenniferEccles.
Well done PM.

Good post Urms.

It's so easy to get people to swallow those lies, isn't it...

P.S. Ug didn't write that post, she copied and pasted it. I assume the congraulations are for the copy and paste skills ?

Maizie, Urms attributed her post to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. It was a good article which I hadn’t seen and found interesting. So as I said, good post Urms.

As I'm sure we're all aware, the first people to receive the vaccine are the elderly living in care homes and their carers.

BBC fact checker at lunchtime was unable to find out the numbers of people living in care homes but he did find out that there are around 380,000 carers (it could have been 350,000 but I don't remember exactly) Anyway, we are getting 800,000 vaccines - enough for 400,000 people, so please do the maths.

The PM said that the govt hoped to get several million vaccines before the end of the year but warned people not to get their hopes up about a quick roll out. The govt doesn't have a time table for the roll out of the first batch.

s we know, this PM is prone to exageration.

FACT CHECK to settle the argument, that Brexit has speeded up the U.K. vaccine authorisation.

(This government needs watching as closely as Trump)

But it’s not correct. Here’s why.

Today’s decision comes from the UK’s independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It’s long worked in tandem with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) deciding which drugs are safe for use.

When we were part of the EU, the EMA had areas of jurisdiction that meant only it could make decisions about certain types of medicine, including vaccines. National regulators like the MHRA couldn’t get involved.

When the UK left the EU on 31 January this year, we entered the “transition period”, which means the European regulations we adopted during our time in the trade bloc are still in effect until the end of 2020.

That includes the rule that says vaccines generally must be authorised by the EMA instead of national regulators.

So even if we were still a member of the EU, the UK regulator would have been able to take this decision on its own because EU law already allows it. Incidentally, that legislation took effect in the UK in 2012, long before Brexit was on the cards.

Asked whether Brexit had sped up the process, the head of the MHRA, Dr June Raine, said today: “We have been able to authorise the supply of the vaccine using provisions under European law which exist until 1 January.”

She added that the regulator’s “speed or our progress has been totally dependent on the availability of data in our rolling review, and the rigorous assessment and independent advice we have received”.

What about that new legislation Matt Hancock mentioned?

In October 2020, the government announced it would amend regulation 174 of the Human Medicines Regulations (the same piece of EU-derived law discussed today).

But, as the government’s own consultation document set out, the amendments would only “clarify” the situation because the existing law was already adequate for coronavirus vaccines.

Here’s what the government said: “If the need arises, regulation 174, in its present form, could be used to authorise nationwide distribution and supply of an unlicensed COVID-19 vaccine (or treatment) in the UK, as well as other potential products.

In practice, this means that, if a suitable COVID-19 vaccine candidate – with strong supporting evidence of safety, quality and efficacy – became available before the end of the transition period but it had not yet been licensed by the European Medicines Agency, regulation 174 could be used to enable temporary UK-only deployment.”

FACT CHECK from the BBC.

The EU - through the European Medicines Agency (EMA) - has yet to approve a coronavirus vaccine.

But the idea that Brexit enabled the UK to press ahead and authorise one is not right.

It was actually permitted under EU law, a point made by the head of the UK's medicines regulator on Wednesday.

Under European law a vaccine must be authorised by the EMA, but individual countries can use an emergency procedure that allows them to distribute a vaccine for temporary use in their domestic market.

Britain is still subject to those EU rules during the post-Brexit transition period which runs until the end of the year.

The UK's own medicines regulator, the MHRA, confirmed this in a statement last month.

The fact checker goes on in more detail, and can be found on the BBC news site if anyone is interested.

The moral of this latest pack of MPs being “economical with the truth” is that

You should never trust anything this government says before first checking the FACTS.

Treat this government as you do Trump, assume it is all lies and hyperbole, the look for the truth.

ug Johnson’s refusal to join forces with the EU in the purchase of vaccine is both shortsighted by Johnson and wrong on your part to suggest that he stole a March in doing so.

Independent Medicine regulation is not prevented by EU regulation. As we have already seen.

But the big issue is that by refusing to become part of the buying consortium, the U.K. has missed out both on the economy of scale, this will have brought us - a prudent necessity in this economic crises, and insurance of supply.

A poor decision, and one that I fervently hope is not made poorer by the end of December. I assume and hope the government is making a mad scramble before the end of December to purchase sufficient vaccine for the U.K. population so that supply is not interrupted by such a little thing as trade agreement etc.