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

@jasjas1973

This is no longer about AZ, but about the abuse of power at the top of the EU and now they are damaging and killing their own people

What absolute rubbish.

Well, you can keep saying that as much as you like, but the facts are unarguable.

European leaders went against their own EMA to pause rollout of the AZ jab. Which will have killed people.

Macron keeps making up totally unfounded reasons to pause/stop the AZ vaccine. Which will have killed people.

But sure, you keep sticking your fingers in your ears!

Do you want another european war?

Well, just like the last two @jasjas1973, we didn't start it.

I mean, the EU was supposedly started to prevent more European wars. And yet here we are...

Yet its only now that the EU is experiencing the uk variant of CV.... weeks after it swept through the UK.... it started here because we allowed CV to run riot.

@jasjas1973 show me the evidence that the Kent variant actually originated in Kent. It could just as easily have arrived here from the continent!

Just because it was identified in Kent first, that doesn't mean it didn't already exist elsewhere. But no country is responsible for a virus mutation.

The point jasjas is that the UK government hasn't made any threat to stop lipids, thermometers, vials etc. The pharmaceutical companies have pointed out the ludicrousness of UvdLs posturing, that she doesn't have the upper hand in anything vaccine related. Her bluster is ill informed and could be dangerous.

The EU, like the USA, has hundreds of thousands of AZ doses sat in fridges waiting for more testing. They are time sensitive and could be better used elsewhere before they become unusable!

That is why people are accusing some politicians of playing with people's lives.

At some point soon, assuming UvdL doesn't do as threatened, the UK will be looking to send vaccines to other countries and the EU will be in no position to negotiate because they will have painted themselves into a corner. So individual countries, like Belgium, are already talking. Boris has said consistently, remember the G7?, that Europe and the USA should be preparing to make big donations of cash and vaccines to Covax. Sadly not everyone has agreed with him and you can see precisely how that is tied in with a country's attitude to AZ. Look at Macron's response for example.

The point jasjas is that the UK government hasn't made any threat to stop lipids, thermometers, vials etc. The pharmaceutical companies have pointed out the ludicrousness of UvdLs posturing, that she doesn't have the upper hand in anything vaccine related. Her bluster is ill informed and could be dangerous.

Exactly.

Jasjas do you think UdvL comments are provoking?

A small point to make in the grand scheme of things but I would just like to point out the U.K. has exported U.K. doses - to the BTO’s. Gibraltar for example has almost vaccinated it’s entire( admittedly small) population thanks to vaccines from the U.K. (pfzier). Same as every other BTO.
Gibraltar has also vaccinated any Spanish nationals that work there ( rightly)

Now now Sasha none of those pesky facts! UK overseas territories apparently don't count, according to someone in another thread!

I have a colleague based in Gibraltar and they are delighted with it all. They were asking if the U.K. population were cross that they had vaccinated everyone whereas we are on 50%. I said not at all, mostly people here have no idea!

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/

Thanks @notimagain it works! Chance to fire up my university French (from over 40 years ago)

@sashagabadon

I have a colleague based in Gibraltar and they are delighted with it all. They were asking if the U.K. population were cross that they had vaccinated everyone whereas we are on 50%. I said not at all, mostly people here have no idea!

Oh my goodness, as if! I saw it on an illustration this morning & was delighted for them as well as other countries that are doing well like Malta.

@Umbivalent

Macron keeps making up totally unfounded reasons to pause/stop the AZ vaccine

He's been below the radar for several days now apart from commenting on the Paris and regional confinement, so I'd appreciate a citation for several recent examples of him "keeping" saying please.

@MrsFezziwig

You're welcome, enjoy the TV...

And finally :

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/21/waging-war-over-vaccines-can-only-end-in-tragedy-for-britain-and-the-eu

It's seems daft that anybody would be at all negative about that. Relatively small island nations bloody well should be fully vaccinated quickly!

The UK government bit secretive about delivery schedule and amounts.
But reading some media I gather the next shipment of pfizer and arrival of 1st lot of moderna which I think bottled in Europe is due shortly.
So we will see next few weeks if its all rhetoric / bluster or they seriously mean it.
Australia was a dry run.

We know only az is bottled in Italy.
Nothing is made of bottled France.
Not sure where pfizer is bottled itsvmade in Belgium and Netherlands..
I thought moderna was Spain.
So private diplomatic conversations with Belgian pm, Spanish people pm and Netherlands is key.
We know with az the export mechanism is member state Italy chose to block then the eu commission supported that.
If the eu can block with disagreement from member state ie Belgium then we have a problem.
I gather and not sure the current export ban is 2 step process.
The new thing they discussing seizing private vaccines from member states is dangerous.
We have some country's sympathetic towards uk. A
I don't think the Spanish hate us and their levels infection quite low at the moment..
Its the ones seriously struggling right now France/ Italy and Germany i think will last out.
I assume Switzerland stay neutral.
Also Ireland won't seek a war with uk die to good Friday agreement, lots cross border travel and business between us.
Problem with the EU is certain countries hold all the power and now uk left some smaller member states are even more marginalise.

That's interesting Umbivalent.

Hopefully this is just hot air, bluster and deflection from their internal vaccine crisis.

Would be nice if they could approach us in a spirit of cooperation and see what we could work out, rather than to continue to behave abominally

"Do you want another european war?

what do you think would happen in a tit for tat exchange? Calais would be blocked....energy cut off.... then what?"

No, but apparently VDL does. What the fuck do you expect us to do - just stand aside and roll over whist the EU sequestrates all vaccines which have part of their production process in the EU (even when its only bottling) leaving the UK with nothing?

Reading AZ ceo’s interview again he said he told the EU AZ would struggle to deliver vaccines the same time as the UK but he would try his best effort, surely the EU knew when they signed the contract there could be delays?

www.google.com/amp/s/www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/01/26/news/interview_pascal_soriot_ceo_astrazeneca_coronavirus_covid_vaccines-284349628/amp/

“Anyway, we didn't commit with the EU, by the way. It's not a commitment we have to Europe: it’s a best effort, we said we are going to make our best effort. The reason why we said that is because Europe at the time wanted to be supplied more or less at the same time as the UK, even though the contract was signed three months later. So we said, “ok, we're going to do our best, we’re going to try, but we cannot commit contractually because we are three months behind UK”. We knew it was a super stretch goal and we know it's a big issue, this pandemic. But our contract is not a contractual commitment. It's a best effort.”

I just think the whole thing is terribly sad.

A UK bankrolled vaccine, developed by Oxford, manufactured by AZ, AT COST, and FREELY licensed around the world, to enable global vaccination, is being sequestered by the EU, just because it happens the manufacturing is mostly in their territory.

The EU does not own the license, the manufacturing, the corporations, it merely is the ground upon which it is being made, with component parts, and bottling from around the world. I just cannot understand how they can claim a moral high-ground. They may have exported x number of vaccines, well they haven't, AZ have, and the UK was instrumental in getting those vaccines out in the first place.

They also already have access to PB, AZ, Moderna and J&J. They currently have more in stock than they are using, some of it apparently close to going out of date. For a long time they were only getting the minimum doses out of each vial, due to wrong needles, and/or insistence on following manufacture instructions. The NHS, with it's long history of cost effectiveness, got as many as it could, at least one extra vaccine per vial, that many 1,000's extra. If it ever comes out that they have been dumping vaccine, the consequences should, at the very least, be VDL's resignation.

I think it’s so sad AZ went into wanting to help the world out of this situation and it’s got caught up in huge political row, his last paragraph says it all

“But I think an important point is…and in some extent this sort of takes us back to Europe: this virus mutates and perfects itself. We need to vaccinate as many people as possible around the world, because if you let the virus multiply in other parts of the world, it will mutate among these populations. Because it moves around people, and it mutates as it moves. So we need to vaccinate a sufficient number of people around the world. And that's why it’s so important to say, as Europe said, that we should get access to vaccines to everyone around the world in a fair and quick manner. For Europe to say they are going to control exports is the contrary to what they said a few months ago, that they were going to give access to everybody. We have supply chains that are dedicated to regions, but we also manage our supply chain globally.”

@jasjas1973

‘Do you want another european war?’

That is a really shocking question. Mind blowing.

You do know who started the last two wars?

Are our options do everything eu demands, no matter how unreasonable, or have a war?

Hopefully jaja is as delusional as vdl and saner voices will prevail. Surely someone has the power to stop her doing more irreparable harm

‘Do as we say, or else’ has been the default position of the EU for years.

It’s why the majority voted for Brexit, despite all the propaganda and misinformation on here.

They are scary. They have learnt nothing from history at all.

The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial yesterday about the whole EU/UK/AZ vaccine situation.

[[https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-gang-that-couldnt-shot-straight-11616193641?mod=opinion_lead_pos1
Europe’s Europe's Gang That Couldn’t Shot Straight -
A string of vaccine bungles on the Continent threatens health and the global economy.]]

It's behind a paywall. If anyone is interested I'll copy and paste the text.

@MissConductUS yes please