Facing 'crisis of century', EU threatens ban on COVID vaccine exports to UK

[sungod]

8 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

So the UK has a contract for vaccine nationalism from a British company and people are horrified at the thought the EU has a problem with this and has started to take steps to prevent this? 

Don't think being way ahead of the pack, clearing a vaccine for use, entering a contract and ordering amounts to use on its population whilst the EU dragged its feet is vaccine nationalism.........

But I'm sure the EU will see it another way as it messed up its rollout, continues to mess up its vaccination program but childishly try to shift the blame on others.

[Hi from France]

20 minutes ago, sungod said:

But I'm sure the EU will see it another way as it messed up its rollout, continues to mess up its vaccination program but childishly try to shift the blame on others.

compared to most other countries I do not think our countries "messed up", I rather think the UK did extremely well.

• First very pro-vaccine population
• Second: competence : right man at the right place with unlimited budget

 

the guy most responsible for the success in ordering is Patrick Vallance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Vallance

 

• extremely competent there, he was the President of Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline for 6 years; That's were the EU failed: this was the first time we did such an operation together and the EU teams was newbie while the UK had the right guy in the right place and spent plenty with excellent anticipation
• he was appointed by Theresa May, not by the national-populists
• for a time, he advocated a herd immunity approach so he could be one of the guys who caused the 27,000 extra Covid deaths. So while he did save a lot of lives, the balance might end up positive or negative

[LomSak27]

On 3/18/2021 at 5:40 AM, RichardColeman said:

Er, US still not approved the AZ yet have they and have everything on hold - I hear the Mexicans are now wanting it as the US are slow rolling the AZ out !

 

Hardly call that getting things done

Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, Getting Merck to produce Johnson & Johnsons vaccine. The companies have stated they will have 100 million doses by the end of May. That is a one shot vaccine. Supposedly Biden is doing the same thing with the Pfizer vaccine right now. Using the Defense Production Act to have other companies plants produce the vaccine to ramp up production.

No need to mewl about AstraZeneca. Good chance President Biden can send it to the UK, the EU or even Thailand after Mexico. Buck up and keep your shirt on, Ok. 

[cocoonclub]

3 hours ago, sungod said:

the EU dragged its feet

I don’t see that. 

3 hours ago, sungod said:

But I'm sure the EU will see it another way as it messed up its rollout,

What did the EU roll out exactly?

3 hours ago, sungod said:

continues to mess up its vaccination program

The EU doesn’t have a vaccination program. It only has a joint procurement of vaccines and that it certainly didn’t mess up. 

3 hours ago, sungod said:

but childishly try to shift the blame on others.

There’s no blame that anyone could shift. 

[sungod]

21 minutes ago, cocoonclub said:

I don’t see that. 

What did the EU roll out exactly?

The EU doesn’t have a vaccination program. It only has a joint procurement of vaccines and that it certainly didn’t mess up. 

There’s no blame that anyone could shift. 

Rose tinted glasses, or delusional.

[cocoonclub]

2 hours ago, sungod said:

Rose tinted glasses, or delusional.

Sticking to facts. There’s a reason why you don’t provide evidence for your wild assertions — it’s all made up nonsense. 

[sungod]

7 hours ago, cocoonclub said:

Sticking to facts. There’s a reason why you don’t provide evidence for your wild assertions — it’s all made up nonsense. 

Google is your friend, even the EU loving BBC says the vaccination program/procurement is a sham...

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by onthedarkside
personal comments removed

[sungod]

I used the word sham, but the  German Finance Minister used an expression that the filters on this forum will not allow!!!! (Rhymes with 'it')

https://www.ft.com/content/39d31c19-5a3d-4352-9bff-630f7c80e5fa

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/04/german-minister-criticises-von-der-leyen-over-covid-vaccines-disgrace

Edited March 19, 2021 by onthedarkside
quote of hidden post removed

[cocoonclub]

40 minutes ago, sungod said:

I used the word sham, but the  German Finance Minister used an expression that the filters on this forum will not allow!!!! (Rhymes with 'it')

https://www.ft.com/content/39d31c19-5a3d-4352-9bff-630f7c80e5fa

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/04/german-minister-criticises-von-der-leyen-over-covid-vaccines-disgrace

This confirms what I wrote earlier: The EU doesn’t have a vaccination program. It only has a joint procurement of vaccines and that it certainly didn’t mess up.
 

The vast majority of the recipients of that joint procurement are better off than without it. Some such as Germany may be complaining that they could have been better off without it, but the point of a joint effort is that the majority is better off even if it means that a minority will be worse off. Comparing it with the UK or US is futile, as the majority of countries has much less clout — Germany and other big countries make maybe 25% of the EU; 75% are smaller countries that would have been much worse off without the joint procurement. 
 

And for the rollout of vaccination programs, the EU doesn’t have any such programs to roll out. Germany for example has one, and it seems they didn’t roll it out too smoothly yet. Blaming the EU for that you could as well blame the UN or NATO or AZ for it, but that wouldn’t fit your EU obsession, of course. 
 

 

 
 

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by cocoonclub

[Hi from France]

5 hours ago, cocoonclub said:

The EU doesn’t have a vaccination program. It only has a joint procurement of vaccines and that it certainly didn’t mess up. 

Good point : the procurement is not the same as the rollout and the jabs.

The EU does not take part in the jabs, which is why there are AZ stocks waiting. 

 

Quote

On Tuesday, Brussels criticised member states for having "unused reservoirs" of vaccines. EU member states have received 62.2 million vaccines under the bloc's joint procurement and administered 77 percent of those, which is about 48 million shots. About 14.8 million of those are AstraZeneca vaccines, with less than half – 7.3 million – being used.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/17/eu-may-trigger-little-used-emergency-article-122-clause-force/

 

All EU countries have to put all these stocks to good use and fast it is a prerequisite before activating article 122, we should definitely not behave like the US: keeping AZ stocks while not using it. 

 

 

[candide]

17 hours ago, vinny41 said:

There are delays for 5 million doses from India

Five million UK-bound AstraZeneca vaccine doses being held up 'by Indian government'

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/18/10m-uk-bound-indian-astrazeneca-vaccine-doses-held-indian-government/

Apparently, It's due to the US banning exports of critical components.

"The Serum Institute of India (SII) - which produces Novavax and AstraZeneca vaccines - recently raised concerns about raw material shortages. Its chief executive, Adar Poonawalla, attributed this to US export bans on specific items needed to make vaccines, such as specialised bags and filters. The firm said it has also faced difficulties importing cell culture media, single-use tubing and specialised chemicals from the US."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55571793

Starting with UK first and US first, 'my country first' is becoming the new normal by domino effect. There's no reason why the EU should not do the same.

[sungod]

4 hours ago, cocoonclub said:

This confirms what I wrote earlier: The EU doesn’t have a vaccination program. It only has a joint procurement of vaccines and that it certainly didn’t mess up.
 

The vast majority of the recipients of that joint procurement are better off than without it. Some such as Germany may be complaining that they could have been better off without it, but the point of a joint effort is that the majority is better off even if it means that a minority will be worse off. Comparing it with the UK or US is futile, as the majority of countries has much less clout — Germany and other big countries make maybe 25% of the EU; 75% are smaller countries that would have been much worse off without the joint procurement. 
 

And for the rollout of vaccination programs, the EU doesn’t have any such programs to roll out. Germany for example has one, and it seems they didn’t roll it out too smoothly yet. Blaming the EU for that you could as well blame the UN or NATO or AZ for it, but that wouldn’t fit your EU obsession, of course.

 

Again, semantics is all you have.

Germany’s finance minister has attacked the European commission’s Covid vaccine strategy as “really <deleted>”, Bild has reported,

Says it all really

 

[sungod]

Hungary has become the first country in the EU to administer the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against Covid-19 to its population.

“Today, we are starting the vaccination with Chinese batches,” said Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a brief message posted on Facebook.

Using an emergency-use approval, the country has purchased 5 million doses from Sinopharm, which will be enough to treat 2.5 million people.

“If vaccines aren’t coming from Brussels, we must obtain them from elsewhere … One cannot allow Hungarians to die simply because Brussels is too slow in procuring vaccines,” Orban said last month.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/02/24/hungary-becomes-first-eu-nation-to-use-china-s-sinopharm-vaccine-against-covid-19

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by onthedarkside
quote of hidden post removed / graph without source link removed

[vinny41]

2 hours ago, candide said:

Apparently, It's due to the US banning exports of critical components.

"The Serum Institute of India (SII) - which produces Novavax and AstraZeneca vaccines - recently raised concerns about raw material shortages. Its chief executive, Adar Poonawalla, attributed this to US export bans on specific items needed to make vaccines, such as specialised bags and filters. The firm said it has also faced difficulties importing cell culture media, single-use tubing and specialised chemicals from the US."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55571793

Starting with UK first and US first, 'my country first' is becoming the new normal by domino effect. There's no reason why the EU should not do the same.

How will the EU produce the vaccine without the UK critical component piece

[onthedarkside]

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[TallGuyJohninBKK]

20 hours ago, candide said:

Biden is a nice guy, but for the time being, it's him who is banning exports to other countries. ????

 

Not quite... The news cycle on such things is moving pretty fast these days:

Biden administration finalizing plans to send millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Canada and Mexico

"Washington (CNN)The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send millions of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses stockpiled and waiting for official usage approval in the US over the border to Mexico and Canada, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

"I can confirm that we have 7 million releasable doses available of AstraZeneca," Psaki said at Thursday's White House press briefing. "2.5 million of those, we are working to finalize plans to lend those to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada," she added.

...

The Biden administration has committed to having enough vaccines for all Americans before sharing doses, and if this agreement comes together it would be the first time the US has shared vaccines directly with another country. It would also likely give a major boost to vaccination efforts in Canada and Mexico who are struggling with their vaccine roll-out in comparison to the US.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/politics/us-astrazeneca-mexico-canada/index.html

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

11 hours ago, LomSak27 said:

Biden invoked the Defense Production Act, Getting Merck to produce Johnson & Johnsons vaccine. The companies have stated they will have 100 million doses by the end of May. That is a one shot vaccine. Supposedly Biden is doing the same thing with the Pfizer vaccine right now. Using the Defense Production Act to have other companies plants produce the vaccine to ramp up production.

 

And further on that point -- U.S. 40 days ahead of schedule in vaccinations:

Biden expected to hit goal of 100 million vaccination shots Friday

"WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said he was poised to meet his goal of administering 100 million Covid-19 vaccination shots in his first 100 days on Friday, more than 40 days ahead of schedule.

"I am proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into my administration, we will have met our goal," Biden said Thursday afternoon in a speech at the White House. "That's weeks ahead of schedule, even with the setbacks we faced during the winter storms."

...

As of Wednesday, the United States had administered more than 96 million shots since Biden was sworn into office, with an average of nearly 2.5 million injections per day this past week, according to data compiled by NBC News.:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-expected-hit-100-million-vaccination-goal-early-thursday-n1261388

 

[onthedarkside]

A bickering exchange between two members has been removed, along with a news graphic posted without the required weblink to its original source.

[candide]

59 minutes ago, vinny41 said:

How will the EU produce the vaccine without the UK critical component piece

The critical component is not only produced by Corda. It's already being supplied by Merck in Germany to BioNtech and another German company is starting too. Plus, there is also a German company producing the same component for Moderna. Of course, there are also other producers in Northern America, but It's dependent on US policy.

Having said that, it is quite possible that there would be a slowdown of production on short term in case of export ban by UK.

[bkk6060]

Is there any country in the world that still favors the UK?

What a sad and disgraceful situation.

[elliss]

On 3/18/2021 at 6:02 AM, sungod said:

The EU has a pathetic vaccine rollout, suspends AZ and still complains it's someone else's fault. What an inept 'organisation.'

 

   UK ,  we are indeed blessed ..

   We left the EU..

[candide]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Not quite... The news cycle on such things is moving pretty fast these days:

Biden administration finalizing plans to send millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Canada and Mexico

"Washington (CNN)The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send millions of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses stockpiled and waiting for official usage approval in the US over the border to Mexico and Canada, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

"I can confirm that we have 7 million releasable doses available of AstraZeneca," Psaki said at Thursday's White House press briefing. "2.5 million of those, we are working to finalize plans to lend those to Mexico and 1.5 million to Canada," she added.

...

The Biden administration has committed to having enough vaccines for all Americans before sharing doses, and if this agreement comes together it would be the first time the US has shared vaccines directly with another country. It would also likely give a major boost to vaccination efforts in Canada and Mexico who are struggling with their vaccine roll-out in comparison to the US.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/politics/us-astrazeneca-mexico-canada/index.html

 

Good initiative!

However, if the EU would have only exported the same number of vaccines (4 million), there would have been 30 million more vaccines available for its members during the last six weeks.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_1121

[billd766]

21 hours ago, candide said:

Biden is a nice guy, but for the time being, it's him who is banning exports to other countries. ????

I don't blame him either. He is doing his best (and a good best at that) to sort out the mess his predecessor (I should have won, The election was stolen from me) left behind.

He, like all other countries leaders wants/needs to take care of his own people first and foremost. but unlike the EU leadership he is not whining about it.

[candide]

16 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I don't blame him either. He is doing his best (and a good best at that) to sort out the mess his predecessor (I should have won, The election was stolen from me) left behind.

He, like all other countries leaders wants/needs to take care of his own people first and foremost. but unlike the EU leadership he is not whining about it.

I am not blaming anyone. I'm just saying that if other countries are following a 'my country first' policy (UK, US, more recently India), there is no reason why the EU shouldn't do the same.

I find it pathetic to see several posters (It's not about you) who used to laud UK first and US first policies, now blaming the EU for considering to apply the same policy.

Edited March 19, 2021 by candide

[cocoonclub]

6 hours ago, sungod said:

Again, semantics is all you have.

I have facts. Which is what you’re lacking, and that’s why you have to deflect; example: 

6 hours ago, sungod said:

Germany’s finance minister has attacked the European commission’s Covid vaccine strategy as “really <deleted>”, Bild has reported,

Says it all really

 

 

[stuandjulie]

3 hours ago, candide said:

I am not blaming anyone. I'm just saying that if other countries are following a 'my country first' policy (UK, US, more recently India), there is no reason why the EU shouldn't do the same.

I find it pathetic to see several posters (It's not about you) who used to laud UK first and US first policies, now blaming the EU for considering to apply the same policy.

Perhaps you could tell us why Italy actually banned an export of AZ to Australia then ? The UK has not actually banned any export, you can't seem to understand the difference between a Company and a Country.

[candide]

7 minutes ago, stuandjulie said:

Perhaps you could tell us why Italy actually banned an export of AZ to Australia then ? The UK has not actually banned any export, you can't seem to understand the difference between a Company and a Country.

UK put a UK first clause in the contract, which has the same outcome as a ban.

[vinny41]

25 minutes ago, candide said:

UK put a UK first clause in the contract, which has the same outcome as a ban.

UK put a UK first clause in their contract with AZ to prevent EU bully boys   trying to pull the stunt of we are the EU we are more important than anyone else 

It Crystal clear there has been a shortfall in the European production sites so the EU response has been we want all of the AZ UK production sites output redirected to the EU to make up the shortfall leaving the UK with zlich a totally unreasonable demand.

Its Clear the EU consider the EU contract with AZ is superior to the UK contract with AZ and feel that AZ should be putting EU first before the UK

 

[Susco]

On 3/18/2021 at 10:29 AM, Laughing Gravy said:

The UK paid far more into the EU coffers than they got back. What the EU should learn is that their whole entity will not survive if they continue in the way they are, on their domination of all Europe.  The UK showed the EU that they can't bully everyone.

The EU should learn to get their vaccine programme in order and stop deflecting from their incompetence, like postponing the Oxford vaccine.

It is a pity your are trying to defend the EU for their failure.

You forget this is about paying for building  the factories to produce the COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 only became an issue after the UK had exited the EU already, so mixing that up with the false claims that were used to get people to vote Brexit, are just some more sour grapes

[candide]

1 minute ago, vinny41 said:

UK put a UK first clause in their contract with AZ to prevent EU bully boys   trying to pull the stunt of we are the EU we are more important than anyone else 

It Crystal clear there has been a shortfall in the European production sites so the EU response has been we want all of the AZ UK production sites output redirected to the EU to make up the shortfall leaving the UK with zlich a totally unreasonable demand.

Its Clear the EU consider the EU contract with AZ is superior to the UK contract with AZ and feel that AZ should be putting EU first before the UK

 

The contract does not specify that EU supply must be produced in the EU-27. You can repeat it as many times as you want, it won't make it true. 

So no supply from AZ factories in UK because of UK first, no supply from AZ or others in the US because of US first, and the EU should go on exporting its own production to other countries as if nothing happened? That's not serious.