The E.U. And AstraZeneca row.

That 8% figure has been widely disproved. They were looking at the wrong bit of the report.....

I think Germany is playing games. They haven’t enough vaccines so are limiting by age groups. The AZ vaccine has been scientifically proven to work well on the over 65’s. It was just that only 8% of those tested were over 65y.

Germany is also saying that the AZ vaccine is no good for those who are over 65 because the efficacy rate will only be 8% ! Brilliant .

Are we over 65's not fit for purpose so we're being killed off by issuing us with a vaccine that isn't going to work ?

Credit to the UK where it is due I think.

In March last year, Oxford University was on the brink of signing a deal with the German drugs giant Merck to research and develop a vaccine.

Our government stepped in and helped steer Oxford towards a partnership with British-based AstraZeneca instead, taking a massive gamble by helping to fund the research and development of a vaccine that might have proved useless.

And, earlier this week Merck, the firm that had come so close to signing up with Oxford, said it was abandoning developing a vaccine after disappointing trial results.

We backed the right horse. Lucky for us.

I read that this morning too JE!

I am sure everyone is aware that it’s in all our interests for the whole world to be vaccinated as quickly as possible, but it’s just totally unacceptable for the EU to attempt to requisition millions of doses destined for us.

I was amused to read that the German press has stated that the EU’s handling of the vaccine rollout is ‘the best advert for Brexit’ !
The German press!!

Australia won't be getting their vaccines until April I think my D said, just before their winter.

The Government was invited to join the EU joint procurement system but declined and made use of emergency authorisation procedures, open to all EU member states, to speed up approval of vaccines.

Brussels sneered that it preferred not to take such risks!

Actually the European Commission has still not approved it. Maybe by the end of the week? Assume there have been no red flags. You have to feel for the citizens under EU procurement. Spain has had to pause their roll out.

The latest vaccination figures in Europe.

Excellent cnn article posted by Casdon.
Suggest we all read before commenting.

So, will I get my second dose of the AZ vaccine in 6 weeks time as promised ? I doubt it ! Ah well.

JenniferEccles

Michael Gove has stated quite firmly that our vaccination supply will most definitely not be interrupted.

I find it extraordinary that the EU which still hasn’t authorised the AZ vaccine and pre ordered three months after us, expects our programme to be delayed because of their incompetence.

You haven’t a clue if that is what is being suggested. Have you read the contract? Or are you allowing your anti-EU bias to colour your judgement?

Gove said that ZA were contractually obliged to a schedule to the U.K.

I suspect that the EU did not.

Michael Gove has stated quite firmly that our vaccination supply will most definitely not be interrupted.

I find it extraordinary that the EU which still hasn’t authorised the AZ vaccine and pre ordered three months after us, expects our programme to be delayed because of their incompetence.

Here they come WWM...

I think that those posting suggesting that as none of us have seen the contracts we don’t know the truth of the matter, are pretty much on the button and it is astounding how it comes once again down to whether you voted leave or not.

CoVid is a planetary issue is is not a nationalist issue, neither should the vaccine be a nationalist issue.

Until every country in the world is vaccinated, we are all at serious risk of the danger of mutation and the even greater danger of not having a vaccine to deal with it.

Frankly we all need to sit in our boxes until the world has been vaccinated to a very high percentage, before we begin to mix again thus preventing the covid virus from mutating into something quite dreadful.

We must as a species cooperate throughout the world ensuring every nation has sufficient vaccine to cover its population, it is entirely in our self interest to do so.

To argue with the EU makes absolutely zero sense and like shooting ourselves in the foot.

However, I am not clear that the U.K. government is arguing. As far as I understand and I am very happy to be corrected that for once our civil servants seem to have got it right by quickly ordered 100 million shots as well as contractually obliging Zeneca to keep to a schedule.

The schedule as far as I understand is something the EU failed to write into the contract.

Correct me if I’m wrong folks?

I think if the people who voted for Brexit were secure that they made the right choice, they would not need to reassure themselves on threads like this.

www.reuters.com/.../us-health-coronavirus-eu...

Firecracker123

Actually it was British taxpayers who funded research for the Oxford Vaccine £65.5 million.

The EU paid £298,000,000 up front, back in August last year to help the UK build manufacturing capacity to make this vaccine in Britain.

The front pages of the gutter press in the UK today are utterly shameful. And then they will wonder why the EU is not cooperating on this, and on oter matters to do with customs, imports, exports, etc. Truly disgusting.

From yesterday’s Independent Inside Politics daily newsletter.

CRY OVER OUR OWN SUPPLY: The EU has told Covid vaccine producers they “must” deliver agreed supplies, as the anguished row over who-gets-what threatens to turn nasty. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed to tighten rules over exports to the UK. “They must honour their obligations,” she said of AstraZeneca and others. Germany is now pressing the European Commission to give member states new powers to block exports of vaccines, according to the FT. Some in Brussels believe that batches of AstraZeneca vaccines earmarked for the EU have “ended up in Britain”, according to unnamed EU diplomats. Paranoia? AstraZeneca says there’s simply no basis to these claims – insisting a slowdown in supply is simply due to factory problems. Boris Johnson urged Brussels to show “common sense”, while vaccine minister Nadhim Zawahi warned against “the dead end of vaccine nationalism”.

The funding announcement follows a global licensing agreement between Oxford University and AstraZeneca, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, for the commercialisation and manufacturing of their potential vaccine.

This means that, if the Oxford vaccine is successful, AstraZeneca will deliver 100 million doses in total worldwide.

Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said: ‘The University of Oxford is immensely proud of the scientists at the Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group who have worked tirelessly to discover and develop this vaccine in record time. We now have a partner in AstraZeneca who are ideally positioned to help us evaluate the vaccine, manufacture it and distribute it to UK citizens as well as to the rest of the world. They share our commitment to true global access to end this pandemic.’

Actually it was British taxpayers who funded research for the Oxford Vaccine £65.5 million.

Casdon

Worth reading this CNN article, which is more balanced than the UK press articles.
edition.cnn.com/2021/01/27/business/astrazeneca-ceo-eu-criticism/index.html

Excellent article Casdon.

A lighthearted view of the situation ?

I think there was some chagrin about the Sanofi vaccine ages ago, but now they are using one of their facilities to make one of the others - Pfizer, I think.
The vaccination roll-out is interesting. It was a painfully slow start, but they have now vaccinated as many people since the beginning of January as the UK did in their first month, so time will tell. We are not eligible yet, but my friends who are in the over 75 group are being seen pretty quickly and have appointments three weeks later for second injections. Lots of local centres opened up and fully equipped buses for rural areas. Given that the pressure on ICU beds is below 50% locally and other treatment is continuing, we feel as comfortable as you can with the situation.
None of it is easy but the gloating from some sources makes me despair of humanity.

Worth reading this CNN article, which is more balanced than the UK press articles.
edition.cnn.com/2021/01/27/business/astrazeneca-ceo-eu-criticism/index.html