AZ - EU contract published

[Davros]

Breaking news on BBC

My point is that whilst the govt has done brilliantly on vaccines, it has equally done very badly on covid deaths, nhs capacity, track and trace, schools and infections, yet no one is willing to acknowledge they could have done better

No one? No one where? I don't think there are many mumsnet posters who don't think the govt could hav3 done better.

But they've done really well with the vaccines.

Indeed - a mighty big tantrum - haven't had a reaction from UK gov yet so they decide to burn the house down to get a reaction which is what they're doing with the border issue in Ireland.

The gov would be wise to hang fire on all of this as like all tantrums the EU will start to look very silly soon to the home audience when they have nowhere to go with their wild accusations.

I agree it looks like they're trying to collapse the EU Commission from the inside ! To expose to any doubters that it isn't the noble enterprise it imagines itself.

I am sounding like a broken record, but yet again does anyone know the actual Uk situation, or better still can point me to a reliable source recording global distribution of the various vaccines?

The reason I ask is that a supply chain problem affects everyone at some point - we may have assurances in the very short term but supplies are going to slow up everywhere. I have just found a govt statement made earlier this week that stated UK supplies were in fact bumpy, and the govt spokesman refused to confirm how many doses had arrived or if planned future supplies were actually guaranteed, though they did say they were confident that AstraZeneca would deliver on its commitment of 2 million doses per week to the UK.

I know this is a thread about Europe's aggressive political response to these supply issues and their contract with AstraZeneca in particular, but I am genuinely keen to understand the detail of this. Particularly as it is implicit in many comments that many think the UK will be fine because they ordered plenty of vaccines early so wont have problems.

So, politics aside, does anyone actually have stats?

Thanks for the link. Shocking.

Why is Israel exempt? They’ve vaccinated half their population. They must have some kind of priority deal with Pfizer. Or is that somehow ok because they are not us.

(nb. I think good for Israel)

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@bluethrough I see you have found thread , as you are on mn you will see the goverment is slated daily , some of us not everything as we await all the evidence and facts, but most of us have our complaints , and we have elections we can vote for change.
Can I say though your user name made me think you actually voted a certain way [/quote]
Oh no! you'll be tagging me constantly again!!! lol!

No the stats aren't out in the open and the UK gov have been working hard on supply issues with AZ and ironing out issues until we got to the stage we're at now where it has scaled up - ie. like the EU should be doing over the next three months as the end of 1st quarter isn't until April and they should be working on that supply line with AZ not burning goodwill with everyone.

Which highlights this is not about what they're shouting about it is entirely for their home audience to find someone to blame for their own incompetence.

@Hmmph

Thanks for the link. Shocking.

Why is Israel exempt? They’ve vaccinated half their population. They must have some kind of priority deal with Pfizer. Or is that somehow ok because they are not us.

(nb. I think good for Israel)

I thought that was odd too. EU said ‘rich countries’ require approval to export their vaccines out of the EU and I’d have thought Israel would be classed as a rich country too. I imagine there must be something watertight in their deal as well.

www.politico.eu/article/eu-imposes-export-controls-on-rich-nations-from-saturday/

@Hmmph

Thanks for the link. Shocking.

Why is Israel exempt? They’ve vaccinated half their population. They must have some kind of priority deal with Pfizer. Or is that somehow ok because they are not us.

(nb. I think good for Israel)

They did do their own deal with Pfizer, paying a premium and offering real-time medical data on efficacy. It's also a very small country with very good medical records.

I think good for them too.

@Bluethrough

The benefit of having an accountable and democratically elected government

No we don't, no one is holding the Govt to account for an utterly disastrous Covid response, this govt won't even admit to a single error, CV is, once again, rampant in care homes.

It's very clear when it comes to the EU, Agreements are only to be kept when it suits them

Johnson ripped up his agreed and signed WA with the EU and Johnson wanted Brexit with no regard to the peace process in NI, his new WA effectively partitions NI away from GB, a position he said "No British PM would ever agree too"

Goose and gander.

As someone who works in a care home, things have improved massively since last year: testing and PPE are there. However, it's a virus and like any virus, there is no way to fully prevent it from getting into care homes or hospitals, even with the best infection control practices.

Secondly, the EU and Ireland were heavily against a return to a hard border (so they said) and the UK was lambasted for trying to implement the Internal Market Bill for fear of this. So it was dropped, and, even though Northern Ireland is it's own territory, the UK was obliged to establish a border in the Irish Sea and, essentially, give customs and excise and movement of goods sovereignty to the EU.
So, no, it's not 'goose and gander,' it's more a case of pot. kettle. black.
Sheer hypocrisy.

Norway isn't poor either

@DamnUserName21 yes which is why when excess wtc it should go to whoever is most in need , so if country still struggling has high numbers that would be my policy .
But no country is going to be giving away before they do their own vulnerable at least at first, no one is expecting Nz to wait until last as they have it under control etc

@Frodont

sorry, i thought it was clear i meant the govt.

It would just be refreshing and human to say "we messed on schools in january, we didn't throw a protective arm around care homes etc"

This is a very unusual situation, no govt could possibly get everything right, i wish they would sometimes accept this.

@Bluethrough that will come, not sure you say it during as more people loose confidence

@Hazelnutlatteplease

Its fairly shocking to think that the EU expect Aztrazeneca to break a previous contract to suit them. Do they only respect contract law when it suits them?

But AZ agreed to it?

Seems that they were happy enough to accept those conditions at the time of signing on the dotted line.

@DamnUserName21

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has issued a stark warning to Brussels, saying that if the current port chaos problems with trade to Northern Ireland persist, he will have no hesitation in invoking Article 16 of the Brexit protocol, and simply tear up the agreement relating to making checks on goods and vehicles compulsory at the ports

[quote Bluethrough]@Frodont

sorry, i thought it was clear i meant the govt.

It would just be refreshing and human to say "we messed on schools in january, we didn't throw a protective arm around care homes etc"

This is a very unusual situation, no govt could possibly get everything right, i wish they would sometimes accept this.[/quote]
I heard someone from the govt saying on R4 that they were wrong not to allow funeral goers during the first pandemic

Hard hitting analysis from the BBC Ireland correspondent. EU invocation of article 16, establishing a hard border in Ireland, is 'audacious'. The entire trade deal hinged on preventing a hard border. Principles have 'vanished' overnight, EU has 'pushed the button', the deal has been undermined and it raises the question, what might they do in the future.

This really is huge. Huge.

@Frodont

My point is that whilst the govt has done brilliantly on vaccines, it has equally done very badly on covid deaths, nhs capacity, track and trace, schools and infections, yet no one is willing to acknowledge they could have done better

No one? No one where? I don't think there are many mumsnet posters who don't think the govt could hav3 done better.

But they've done really well with the vaccines.

Yup.

I've started several posts with "Johnson has fucked up just about everything he's touched and saddled us with the 3rd worst death rate in the world (CDC figures) but the one thing the government has got right is the vaccination programme."

And however you slice it, the EU Commission fucking up drafting its contract with AZ can't be pinned on Bozo the Clown no matter how much I hate the guy.

It's weirdly refreshing not to be living in the country that's fucking this up, for once.

@Wherrsmaclickypen

I am sounding like a broken record, but yet again does anyone know the actual Uk situation, or better still can point me to a reliable source recording global distribution of the various vaccines?

The reason I ask is that a supply chain problem affects everyone at some point - we may have assurances in the very short term but supplies are going to slow up everywhere. I have just found a govt statement made earlier this week that stated UK supplies were in fact bumpy, and the govt spokesman refused to confirm how many doses had arrived or if planned future supplies were actually guaranteed, though they did say they were confident that AstraZeneca would deliver on its commitment of 2 million doses per week to the UK.

I know this is a thread about Europe's aggressive political response to these supply issues and their contract with AstraZeneca in particular, but I am genuinely keen to understand the detail of this. Particularly as it is implicit in many comments that many think the UK will be fine because they ordered plenty of vaccines early so wont have problems.

So, politics aside, does anyone actually have stats?

Sturgeon's planning to release the UK supply figures next week so keep a look out for that.

Seriously, I wonder if the govt is keeping it deliberately vague.

@Bluethrough sorry thats because I don't know how to copy peoples post and post under

@Hmmph

Thanks for the link. Shocking.

Why is Israel exempt? They’ve vaccinated half their population. They must have some kind of priority deal with Pfizer. Or is that somehow ok because they are not us.

(nb. I think good for Israel)

Israel got a deal with Pfizer to get quickly enough vaccines for everyone as long as they reported the data back

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/3aae4345-46cc-4636-a3f9-a93a6762f87f

The two Israeli politicians promised to build one of the fastest vaccination drives in the world and share data on its impact on the pandemic, so long as supplies were plentiful and uninterrupted. Pfizer agreed and the deliveries started by mid-December.

The company will be able to boast about it, to make profit from it and to publicise it,” said Mr Edelstein, in an interview with the Financial Times. “Without this, any company wouldn’t even be looking at our direction — they would be looking for markets a hundred times the size.”

@Frodont

Norway isn't poor either

I think Norway reached a deal with Sweden whereby the latter would buy extra doses under the EU scheme and then sell them to Norway.

They might have been better going it alone, especially given that Norway is an extremely wealthy country.

I can't find the UK-AZ contract, but the UK-Pfizer agreement (redacted) is available. The lawyers who drafted that agreement took a bit more care than the lawyers who did the EU-AZ one, they specifically dealt with what was to happen if there wasn't enough vaccine for all customers:

"If Authorisation is received but there are insufficient volumes of the Goods available from the Supplier sites in the EEA to enable the Supplier to deliver the full amount of Goods to the Authority within the agreed timescale while meeting Covid-19 vaccine supply commitments to the Supplier’s Affiliates’ other customers the Supplier will supply the Authority such volumes of Goods as are [REDACTED]"

I mean, we'll never know what the actual solution was because that bit is redacted, but at least they thought about it!

Isreal is doing amazing and we will all be looking at the to see how it goes