EU threatening to cut off supply of vaccines to UK

[Iremembertheelderlykoreanlady]

Because they've not got enough apparently (despite the fact that they've got a shit load of AZ stockpiled because they've mostly stopped using it)

This is really starting to piss me off now, and has someone who is due 2nd Pfizer jab in 8 weeks in starting to worry I won't get it!

They're threatening to stop supply to USA too.

Wankers

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/ursula-von-der-leyen-threatens-cut-off-covid-exports-uk-b924652.html

A few weeks ago Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaking to MEPs about the EU's vaccine rollout at the start of a debate on the bloc's vaccination strategy.

"We’re going to work as hard as we possibly can to reach our objective so that by the end of the summer at least 70% of the population will be vaccinated," she says.

But Von der Leyen admits that right now “we’re still not where we want to be".

"We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production, and perhaps too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time.

"We need to ask ourselves why that is the case and what lessons we can draw.”

We were late to authorise

The amount of stick the U.K. got on here for authorising quickly.

sashagabadon

it wasn't just Oxford AZ that the uk government were hands on with, but to lesser extent the some of the other manufacturers too.

There is an interview with Katie Bingham, were she talks about her and her teams approach. Which was "what do you need? sites? lab? trials? materials? what sort of support?"

Remember this was before anyone knew which vaccines were going to be viable.

@MarshaBradyo

We were late to authorise

The amount of stick the U.K. got on here for authorising quickly.

Still do some times by the it's all a big experiment or the EU are just being more careful posters

As you can see from the graph I posted above the UK have invested way more per person than the EU towards vaccine development. Not just AZ but other vaccine research and trials too.

And Kate Bingham says in an interview interview in the Telegraph today that success wasn't in any way a given. "The experts’ view was, if there was a vaccine already under development in the clinic, it may be 15 per cent likely to succeed, maybe 20. If it wasn’t yet in the clinic, it was probably less than 10 per cent.’
So the UK spent a fortune on supporting the development of vaccines as well as manufacture, put together hundreds of thousands of volunteers for trials and worked out how to speed up approval safely. It was all a huge, huge gamble & tremendous effort and the EU are accusing us of not helping them. FFS!

I don't think they can tbh. We produce AZ over here too and Pfizer have warned them to back down as we supply a lot of the ingredients. They're just throwing their toys out of the pram.

So it's fine for the UK and USA to hold onto all vaccine supply produced in their territories, but the moment the EU do something similar in order to protect their own citizens, they're utterly lambasted.

The EU have made mistakes but this attitude from the UK is ridiculous. Stop believing the bile spewed in the British gutter press! Why is only the EU expected to put other countries' citizens ahead of their own?

@NewYearNewTwatName

sashagabadon

it wasn't just Oxford AZ that the uk government were hands on with, but to lesser extent the some of the other manufacturers too.

There is an interview with Katie Bingham, were she talks about her and her teams approach. Which was "what do you need? sites? lab? trials? materials? what sort of support?"

Remember this was before anyone knew which vaccines were going to be viable.

Yes we have done so many of the trials here in the U.K..AZ, pfzier, novovax. The j and j one too. I have personal skin in the game as I’m on the Oxford trial with a few of my colleagues. In addition to the two doses of vaccine, I have spent hours since May, having monthly blood tests, monthly blood pressure checks, filling in a weekly questionnaire, weekly Covid tests. Honestly hours of my time and it carries on till June! I don’t begrudge it at all, but I’m glad it benefits my fellow citizens as well as the rest of the world.

Try reading the thread Sakura - particularly the information on contracts and private business'. We invested hugely and quickly in vaccine development and secured good contracts as a result of that. US did the same. EU just ordered doses and wasted time trying to drive down prices where other nations had already paid up front for development with no guarantees that any of the vaccines would work but in return for that gamble if they did prove effective they had deals that their nation was provided first given their investment.

Everyone will benefit from UK and US investment (and Israel and India presumably). It's not our fault that the EU fucked it up and the way they are handling it is appalling.

I have done TheHoneyBadger - I just don't share your opinion.

This is a useful non-biased article here:
www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/europe/uk-astrazeneca-vaccine-contract-details-intl/index.html

ahh another fact adverse poster

It ain't opinions, it facts of investment, and mistakes all of which have Zero to do the UK.

[quote Sakura7]I have done TheHoneyBadger - I just don't share your opinion.

This is a useful non-biased article here:
www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/europe/uk-astrazeneca-vaccine-contract-details-intl/index.html[/quote]
Are you joking. CNN is not unbiased when it comes to the UK. Have you seen some of their gossip stories lately about the royals. They have even shown the fake headlines from the Oprah interview.

[quote Sakura7]I have done TheHoneyBadger - I just don't share your opinion.

This is a useful non-biased article here:
www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/europe/uk-astrazeneca-vaccine-contract-details-intl/index.html[/quote]
There's another much better article further down the thread which explains it really well. Yes, they are both best effort contracts and the EU actually signed the contract first.

BUT the attention is in the detail elsewhere and what 'best effort' means. The UK have much more detail about what happens if they don't meet their order, clauses which means they can sue/withhold payment and hold the manufactures responsible. Clauses which say they must get supplies from elsewhere if they can't manufacture it themselves and a much longer notice period if supplies are effected. So they are much more likely to get more vaccinations first to fulfill their order to avoid lawsuits/loss of payment. The EU doesn't have this. They only have a clause where they still have to pay when vaccinations are delivered.

Critically, they also have clauses in the contract about supply chains being effective, fluent and efficient. They were thorough about where and how these supply chains would work. They invested £££ right at the beginning of the manufacturing process to ensure these were in place. In fact making them almost like share holders. They were working together since April despite not signing until months later.

Whereas the EU have invested very little in comparison, did not have effective supply chains set up and hasn't even specified where these manufacturers would be.

So the EU want it now and are complaining having put none of the time, investment, effort or manufacturing supply chains in place. Plus, their contracts are vague and they haven't specified details like the UK contract did. Like someone else said- none of which is the UKs problem.

Most of us care what happens to Europeans, most of us genuinely feel aggrieved as we know what is coming for them.

It is interesting the way VDL has turned it into an us against them situation, and almost I would say exploited the brexit angle. Having given up on keeping the UK within the EU sphere there seems to be a plan afoot to now actively make us seem like the bastards making life difficult with language like:

• The British variant is now infecting Europe (the truth is there are already many many variants from everywhere, just because we are very good at detecting them due to world class facilities does not make us responsible for every last one! This kind of language will stifle reporting of new and potentially lethal variants)

• The British are keeping all the vaccine (we are just following the contracts)

• The British vaccine is substandard - can't be used for over 55s/65s/70s/ take your pick on age as it is not science based anyway

• The British vaccine causes fatal blood clots in the brain (the Pjizer vaccine causes more clots but don't let the facts stand in your way) Mass scare tactics deployed on a global scale, and you realise the irrelevance of the EU commission when you see that only the Congo and Indonesia pay any attention whatsoever.

The general very anti British sentiment that infects everything they say. I think we have to be very careful that they are not damaging us in other less obvious ways. Or maybe they have been doing so for decades who knows now.

The point is there seems to be me, to be a very carefully orchestrated campaign, that seems to be taking precedence over the lives of their own nations. I do read international newspapers, and yes they are reporting VDL as being a disaster, but there is no actual effort/conversation to remove her. How can so called 26 democracies stand by and allow her to continue like this? It is moments like this when I am glad of our ruthless media, and we should all be glad we have them.

Sakura and that article is been quoted so many times by people who are looking to claim big bad UK is mistreating the poor EU.

It deliberately ignored all the facts about the UK govt relationship with Oxford Uni and pre existing deals.

Basically it's a lot of shit linked by people who simply cannot comprehend WHY the UK are getting the vaccines manufactured in the UK 1st and the effort that was put into making sure that was the case. Literally from the horses now - not pharma company but the scientists who have worked so hard to create a vaccine for the world only to have the EU and EU member states spend so time tarnishing it - and before you say that it's not the EU or its not all EU politicians - they are guilty by association. They have allowed it to happen. They have allowed the disinformation and not once have they questioned it (the only exceptions being Belguim, Poland and a couple of others on safety of AZ vaccine recently).

twitter.com/adamjohnritchie/status/1355873101708451841?s=19

I get it - it's crap, you don't have the vaccines you need, but ITS NOT OUR FAULT.

hasn't even specified where these manufacturers would be

Not strictly true. It mentions the 2 UK sites. Even though it had been publicised months before that these sites were going to supply UK 1st.

It's almost as if they were trying to get a contract that superceded the UK deal and they would get the vaccines that so many in the UK had worked so hard to develop and set up such chains.

Possibly the UK government put so much effort into AZ because of Brexit - if we'd stayed in the EU we'd have been stuck with the Sanofi disaster and maybe no AZ to bail us all out.

I would also point out that none of us would have the Pfizer, Moderna, J&J or Novavax vaccines without huge at-risk investments. I don't recall the EU showing up with their checkbook last summer when those investments were being made.

I don't think the EU have bought any Novavax.

We are manufacturing it, I think at the moment. I am sure they will blame us if we don't export that too, even if they don't have a contract.

In fairness though, the Germans did fund BionTech.

It is also.a European vaccine even though Americans think otherwise.

But because Germany went with the EU and the Franch wanted Sanofi they only signed a contract with Pfizer in November (months after UK) so don't really get the benefit.

To add about Novavax, I think but could be wrong, that the first X amount manufactured is to the US . We wait in line before our contract kicks in. As that's business.

It would appear, if article is correct, the EU have officially lost their minds. I hope U.K. can keep a cool head as we have done so far (will be difficult though because it’s a very stupid/dangerous thing the EU are doing). I guess Thursday will be the decider.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9384659/Merkel-Macron-set-illegal-EU-plan.html

@Itsalonghaul

The point is there seems to be me, to be a very carefully orchestrated campaign, that seems to be taking precedence over the lives of their own nations. I do read international newspapers, and yes they are reporting VDL as being a disaster, but there is no actual effort/conversation to remove her.

I'm not sure what you're reading but the only orchestrated campaign I can see is the anti-EU/"European" UK media that seems to have migrated to one or two postings here.

I'm afraid if you want to really keep a finger on the pulse Europe wide you need to read the non English language stuff( and I assume you do?) to get the proper content/translation, and to really understand national sentiment the national news/politics programs as pitched at the domestic audience, not the national equivalent of BBC world...

As an example I'm not sure this link to a French 24 hour rolling news will work outside France but I'll post it anyway:

www.bfmtv.com/en-direct/

Maybe the print/on-line stuff you read will catch up with events in a few hours, but in the meantime I would council against assuming everybody in the "EU" right now is happy with events, there certainly is a conversation going on.

The variant 1st discovered in Kent! There corrected that for you.......

This. And what a coincidence that it was discovered in Kent - the nearest point in the UK to... the EU.

The new victim of it is Papua New Guinea who have a COVID surge. Australia is trying to help by donating AZ vaccine but of course their 1million dose order was seized by Italy/the EU - who haven't answered their request for it to be sent to PNG. They've appealed to AZ directly now.

Appalling.