Macron and the AZ vaccine

So called facts which can be disputed actually.
I understand that Posters who live in France may feel uncomfortable having Macron dissed, but dissing politicians is what’s done on the news and politics threads.

maybe that comment wasnt for me
its a bit early

i am not having a go at mamie
i am answering her question

Macron is as anti- British as they come, plus being an arrogant and unpopular French President, he won’t last long.

lemongrove

Mamie you live in France, so what must be painful for you are any accusations aimed at Macron, however you will have to put up with that.

growstuff ‘parochial’ British news? That made me laugh.
I guess French news is more to your taste ( what with France being in the EU and all.)

Why have a go at Mamie? She has only tried to answer with facts.

Ooh, look, a squirrel! ?

Me neither Witzend in fact it has always seemed obvious.

It used to be obvious to the hopelessly uninformed that the sun went round the earth. That ended well.

theres something strange going on with the teenager group 12 - 18 in the uk
i reckon we are going for herd immunity
judging by the number attending music festivals and clubs over the summer who are getting infected it will be job done by the return to school in september

Mamie you live in France, so what must be painful for you are any accusations aimed at Macron, however you will have to put up with that.

growstuff ‘parochial’ British news? That made me laugh.
I guess French news is more to your taste ( what with France being in the EU and all.)

JenniferEccles Macron's remarks were not made in relation to blood clots, which had not arisen as an issue at the time. They were about the lack of early data from the Oxford trials about the effectiveness in older people, (who were under-represented in the trials). When the evidence was available that it was perfectly effective, the first doses in France were targeted at the 60-75 year olds with pre-existing conditions, of whom my husband was one. That was in early March.

I am genuinely interested to know what people think about the UK vaccination campaign in relation to teenagers. My 15 and 13 year old grandchildren in Spain will have been fully vaccinated when they go back to school. My 15 year old granddaughter in the UK, going into her GCSE year, will not.
There must be other people on here with grandchildren in the 12-17 group and I wonder if you think this could have been managed better?
Is that not a more interesting topic for discussion that something that happened six months ago?

If you look at the actual data (painful I know lemongrove) all the very limited AZ that was delivered early in the roll-out in France was used straight away. When a huge amount of Pfizer supplies became available fewer AZ was used partly because of concerns about clots and mostly because of the unreliability of AZ supplies.
Pfizer has been the saviour of the now highly successful vaccination campaign here.

lemongrove

Dear oh dear growstuff !
You obviously didn’t watch the news or read any newspapers, and yes, there are some good reliable newspapers around.
After rubbishing the AZ vaccine, they then realised they had shot themselves in the foot, as people there didn’t want it, and the virus spread unchecked with too few being vaccinated.
Then they decided it was possibly safe after all, demanded consignments already promised to other countries should go to EU countries only, and after all that, it set back their vaccination programmes by miles.

Oh, but I do follow the news - and not only the UK news, which is why I take the parochial British news with a large dose of salt.

Were you following the news in the French media?

I am quite happy to have had Macron as a leader for the last eighteen months considering how many deaths per million have happened in the UK. Moreover, there isn’t the same huge backlog of operations nor appointments seeing people face to face.

He has also managed to keep schools open where possible from June 2020, only closing in the first lockdown and stipulated the use of an an online app which has to be shown in cafes or other places and people still have to wear masks, I feel safe at the moment.

He did not rubbish the vaccine but he had to obey the laws of the country. At the time of the roll out of the vaccine, results were still in progress at all levels. I believe that the laboratories were not liable for any claims, if there were any problems in the future. With this in mind and the fact that Ministers are held responsible for their actions, (eg 70/80s contaminated blood, the English minster gave evidence at an inquiry, whereas two French ministers were on charges of manslaughter) is why there was at lot of hesitation a the time with all European countries. He could have been accused in court if he had continued to have people vaccinated when other countries were flagging up what they thought were problems. It had ready been done in the recent pass.

The news very rarely talks about Brexit, the UK is not insulted nor ridiculed. Macron’s problems are of course from either the far right or the far left because spending is too much or too little and the retirement age being revise.

I believe what you are hearing is similar to the straight banana someone wrote about many years ago.

Macron isn't as bad as some, but he is very inconsistent. In his own words, one minute the UK is an ally, then Brexit is full of lies, then we are best friends, then false and not to be trusted. It is no wonder he says one thing about AZ one day and something else the next.
Whatever he finally decided about vaccinating in France actually appears to be working well.

I doubt that Macron will be around politically for all that long.
Oh how sad, never mind.?

JenniferEccles

What accusations did I make up growstuff ?
Macron and Merkle did do a huge amount of damage when they made unfounded accusations against the AZ vaccine.

Yes we all know that there was a tiny minority of people who had blood clots after the vaccine, but the two leaders blew it all out of proportion causing doubts in the minds of French and German people.

Yes, this....absolutely!

Dear oh dear growstuff !
You obviously didn’t watch the news or read any newspapers, and yes, there are some good reliable newspapers around.
After rubbishing the AZ vaccine, they then realised they had shot themselves in the foot, as people there didn’t want it, and the virus spread unchecked with too few being vaccinated.
Then they decided it was possibly safe after all, demanded consignments already promised to other countries should go to EU countries only, and after all that, it set back their vaccination programmes by miles.

Any guesses as to which vaccine Merkel got? (Clue: starts with A, ends in Z)

Sorry, I'm going to need another clue.

Can you tell us what unfounded allegations Merkel made please? Anything that she said that wasn't based on the advice of German medical authorities would do. Any guesses as to which vaccine Merkel got? (Clue: starts with A, ends in Z)

JenniferEccles

What accusations did I make up growstuff ?
Macron and Merkle did do a huge amount of damage when they made unfounded accusations against the AZ vaccine.

Yes we all know that there was a tiny minority of people who had blood clots after the vaccine, but the two leaders blew it all out of proportion causing doubts in the minds of French and German people.

Did you pick that up from British media? It's also the case that some sectors of the British media have blown what Macron and Merkel said out of all proportion. You really should look at the kind of stuff our own leaders say.

What accusations did I make up growstuff ?
Macron and Merkle did do a huge amount of damage when they made unfounded accusations against the AZ vaccine.

Yes we all know that there was a tiny minority of people who had blood clots after the vaccine, but the two leaders blew it all out of proportion causing doubts in the minds of French and German people.

Namsnanny

I don't doubt it at all Witzend

Me neither Witzend in fact it has always seemed obvious.

I know that you voted to Remain and didn’t want Brexit so you have no axe to grind.

Do you believe this about Johnson - heard from someone I know who heard from the person who spoke to Johnson - on the Greek island where his father has a holiday home.

The man on the Greek island took Johnson to task about the lies told and ended up quoting Shakespeare at him. Johnson's riposte was to say that if he had to do it again he'd have a bigger bus and write £450 million on it.

Then it very quickly became apparent that, having left and negotiated our own vaccine deals long before the lumbering EU, that we would have one of the most successful vaccination programmes in the world.

Do we, aye?

(Canada, Chile, and Uruguay are ahead of us as well, but they're not EU so I didn't include them.)