EU threaten to cut off vaccine supply to the UK 2

[Baileysforchristmas]

As the other thread is full

www.politico.eu/article/commission-proposes-six-week-vaccine-export-ban-amid-fears-of-trade-war/

I follow the news as best I can but have lost the plot when it comes to the whole EU vaccine issue. Can anyone break it down in simple language for me please? I'd love to get a grip on understanding the situation and how it impacts the UK.

I suppose we haven’t heard anything post the EU meeting today

So in a pandemic, the best course of action is to sue? Of course, if it was the other way round, and AZ had not been successful and it was the Glaxo/Sanofi vaccine made mainly in France? Why can you not be happy the U.K. vaccination schedule has worked so well? Why post after post about how crap the EU is when they just want the vaccines they ordered? Of course it is jingoistic. "Fuck the EU, they fucked up. How dare they put my child/granny at risk" when everyone over 50 is already vaccinated.

The Politico article featured upthread mentions the following regarding the supply chain:

The order form said that four plants would provide drug substance, including the Oxford Biomedica and Cobra Biologics based in the U.K., Halix in the Netherlands, and Novasep (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) in Belgium.

[ . . . ]

Despite the fact that all three British sites, as well as the Dutch and German subcontractors, are clearly included in the supply chain,

It's not clear from this second extract if they are only talking about the aforementioned component suppliers, or are referring to the two manufacturing plants and the fill / finish site - although the latter sounds feasible I would like to see the actual wording covering both.

@Avondklok

So in a pandemic, the best course of action is to sue? Of course, if it was the other way round, and AZ had not been successful and it was the Glaxo/Sanofi vaccine made mainly in France? Why can you not be happy the U.K. vaccination schedule has worked so well? Why post after post about how crap the EU is when they just want the vaccines they ordered? Of course it is jingoistic. "Fuck the EU, they fucked up. How dare they put my child/granny at risk" when everyone over 50 is already vaccinated.

Because they would be overriding U.K. / AZ contract.

And potentially impacting the rollout here.

Here you go @Avondklok. Here are some headlines for you:

Jean-Claude Juncker urges EU to step back from ‘stupid vaccine war’ with the UK

Europe warned AstraZeneca vaccine pause could create 'disaster' for uptake

What is Europe's problem with the AstraZeneca jab?

All from - The New European. The newspaper whose whole raison d'etre is to be pro-EU.

Avondklok Thu 25-Mar-21 20:44:13

when everyone over 50 is already vaccinated.

Nope, not quite yet, still haven't had mine, although I am booked in and will get it in just under a fortnight.

@Avondklok

Jingoistic DM is old because it's mostly true. You are all swallowing the line the evil EU is out to punish U.K. This thread is full of it. The U.K. is an absolute cluster fuck of flag waving and rights being dismantled under your very noses. Brexit is bankrupting business by the day. Headlines however are about EU stealing your vaccines.

Well we agree on Brexit......

But that doesn't make the behaviour of the EU acceptable in this case.

They have fucked up but are not prepared to own it.

We are on our own now, daft as it was, so we can only blame ourselves for our mistakes.

The vaccine program has not been a mistake.....

So in a pandemic, the best course of action is to sue?

Italy certainly seemed to think so. They've quietened down now, though.

@Avondklok

So in a pandemic, the best course of action is to sue? Of course, if it was the other way round, and AZ had not been successful and it was the Glaxo/Sanofi vaccine made mainly in France? Why can you not be happy the U.K. vaccination schedule has worked so well? Why post after post about how crap the EU is when they just want the vaccines they ordered? Of course it is jingoistic. "Fuck the EU, they fucked up. How dare they put my child/granny at risk" when everyone over 50 is already vaccinated.

We would mean of course we would, but I think our anger would be directed at UK govt - at least I hope it would be.

Where the EU have got it wrong, is their are directing their anger at UK as well as AZ. It's got nowt to do with us.

I don't think we would try and steal their vaccines. But we only have a very small vaccine manufacture capacity at this time.

That doesn't mean i don't think we should help out.......

@Avondklok

So in a pandemic, the best course of action is to sue? Of course, if it was the other way round, and AZ had not been successful and it was the Glaxo/Sanofi vaccine made mainly in France? Why can you not be happy the U.K. vaccination schedule has worked so well? Why post after post about how crap the EU is when they just want the vaccines they ordered? Of course it is jingoistic. "Fuck the EU, they fucked up. How dare they put my child/granny at risk" when everyone over 50 is already vaccinated.

Ironically, the EU is putting their own grannies and children at risk by all the nonsense they are spouting about the AZ jab, and by pausing it against the advice of their own EMA.

I still wonder each time what goes through these people's minds when they think about what Astrazeneca are doing. Do they think Astrazeneca:
A) Have all the staff busy with an internal Candy Crush competition so they can't be arsed to make vaccines.
B) Have had difficulties in getting the supply chain running smoothly that they're trying to iron out so doses are lower, but public attacks make the EU look like a great partner to do business with.
C) Are actively hiding doses in a huge pan-EU conspiracy so that they can smuggle them out hidden in trucks like heroin, just because they like the UK and don't like the EU.

Tbf each MEP that has sounded frustrated on the radio has said it’s AZ not U.K.

But that doesn’t help the slower production in EU which is the issue

Of course on mn the amount of posts going on about U.K. at fault is crazy

People need to consider the contracts and production timing which has led to this

Of course the issue is with AZ and not U.K. It's the U.K. that's making out it is.

@Avondklok

Of course the issue is with AZ and not U.K. It's the U.K. that's making out it is.

Is what?

How?

It becomes U.K. issue because stopping our supply obviously impacts us.

Can’t you see that?

It’s difficult to look at any of the EU’s actions and have sympathy although I do try and see it from their POV and I do understand their citizens frustration but none of it is the fault of the U.K. yet we seem to be made the scapegoat for their woes.
So much of the behaviour has been indefensible, right from the first mention of all this saga back at the end of January, to the 8% effective briefing, the quasi effective macron quote, the factory raids, the blocking of doses, the threats of export bans, the insinuations that AZ have been hiding 29 million doses to secretly send to the U.K. ( utter nonsense); threatening to trigger article 16, the constant attacks on AZ’s safety resulting in stop start roll outs, Merkel saying she wouldn’t take it. Macron criticism of the U.K. 12 week dosing calling it “not serious “ I’m sure there’s plenty more but I’ve forgotten it!!
It’s quite unbelievable and such a catalogue of what not to do in a pandemic.

everyone over 50 is already vaccinated

The target, which is hopefully still on course, is for everyone over 50 to have their first vaccination by mid-April with their second to follow so no, what you say isn't true. Not even all the +85s are vaccinated for the first time yet.

@Avondklok if the issue is with Az and not the UK, then why are the EU debating restricting vaccine exports to the UK? Please bear in mind that, according to UvdL, no Az has been exported to the UK since first of February so those restrictions can only be meaningful if they stop Pfizer exports.

If the issue is with Az, and not the recipient countries, then why is the vaccine status of the recipient countries one of the factors to be taken into account when deciding whether to allow exports?

No one has actually stopped anything though. Only India.

@Avondklok

No one has actually stopped anything though. Only India.

Obviously talking about stopping it is of interest

Bizarre how people think threatening to interrupt supply is not of interest to the country you will be impacting

Breakdown for first and second doses by age are available at twitter.com/john_actuary/status/1375101494693879808 The UK is a long way off all over 50 year olds being vaccinated. 65% of 50-54 year olds have had dose one, and less than 3% have had dose two.