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After the tragic 100,000 deaths mark in the UK directly related to Covid, the worst affected country of comparative size, the EU is now threatening to halt export of vaccines from the EU to "third countries" including the poorer developing world as well as the UK! This despite the EU not having approved the AstraZeneca vaccine yet and accusing it of profiteering when one of the requirements to work with Oxford University was that it was a non-for-profit venture. Shockingly (or maybe not so) it's the Germans leading the threat of a "trade war". Maybe the unelected European Commission should take some responsibility in being slow on signing the contract, in being slow on approving the vaccine and also not to mention it's the vaccine producers in the EU that are slowing down the operations due to their logistical problems. These things take time to sort out the production/supply chain and they still even haven't approved the vaccine!
What a disgusting bureaucratic monster. The difficulties the UK is now having in exporting to the EU now highlights the difficulty it is for poorer developing countries to export to the block and that's without having 40 years of parity systems/licencing the UK has had with the EU and financial resources the developing world could only dream of.
I was a Remainer but my eyes have been opened!
EU now resorting to threats against the UK! They still don't seem to quite grasp the fact that we've LEFT the EU! The deal the UK struck with the pharmaceutical companies is NONE of their business! For once the UK government did the right thing and has obtained it's vaccines quickly and efficiently, the EU has basically f*cked up in this and it's response to its f*ck up? A childish jealous attack on an independent third country. Disgusting - EU take some responsibility for YOUR balls up!!
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Not all the peeps in the trade hold the same views.....maybe you should just recognise that there are differing opinions dependent on where you sit, rather than insisting everything is hunky dory.
Not just the UK but any country outside the bloc! Which usually means the developing world. Also its outlined in the UK government plan that the surplus vaccine ordered is to vaccinate those in the poorest countries for FREE! In essence the UK has already paid for them and is clearly more efficient at running a vaccination program.
The EU's overbearing and undemocratic tactics are being exposed. Be careful what is done in your name, that's the beauty of democracy, it's the people that have the power. Not so re: the EU commission.
David Greene, the president of the Law Society and a senior partner at Edwin Coe, where he litigates contracts, said: “If they [AZ] gave assurances that they made reasonable best efforts to supply the EU but were in fact diverting material from one place to another, that would on the face of it be a potential breach of obligations to use reasonable best efforts.”
David Greene, the president of the Law Society and a senior partner at Edwin Coe, where he litigates contracts, said: “If they [AZ] gave assurances that they made reasonable best efforts to supply the EU but were in fact diverting material from one place to another, that would on the face of it be a potential breach of obligations to use reasonable best efforts.”
So the EU are going to take action in relation to a drug they have not cleared for use at this time, and are claiming may not be effective in over 65's citing insufficient data about how effective the jab is for older people, not because of any safety concerns, Reuters reported.
This is despite Britain's medicines regulator having judged it is "effective across all age groups and provides a good immune response across all age groups".
At the same time as the EU tries to discredit AstraZeneca, the UK is just getting on with clearing more vaccines for use. It also should be noted that AstraZenaca don't manufacture the drug in the UK, and that they have a deal through the UK Government for Indian pharma company Wockhardt to manufacture the vaccine at it's plant in Wrenhan and and US company Thermo Fisher to manufacture the vaccine at it's Swindon plant. So the UK manufacturing of the vaccine had nothing to do with AstraZenaca.
The UK has now cleared the US Pfizer vaccine, the AstraZenacas Vaccine, the US Moderna Vaccine and now the US Novavax Covid , with Teesside in England to produce 60 million doses of the Novavax vaccine. A further vaccine is also now being manufactured and is going through final clearance, with 60 million vaccines to be manufactured in the UK. The UK has also ordered to vaccines that are still under trail in relation to GSK/Sanofi Pasteur vaccin and the Janssen vaccine.
The UK ordered vaccines months before the EU, despite the EU being warned to order vaccines early, and the UK ordered multiple different types of vaccines like most nations, so that all it's eggs would not be in one basket, as some vaccines would work and some might not, and the UK was also aware of possible production problems so made numerous deals in relation to producers.
Indeed the UK also had production problems in terms of AstraZeneca but unlike the EU which is looking for a scapegoat to blame, the UK just gets on with clearing vaccines and vaccine production.
The truth is the UK spend large amounts of money in infrastructure and contracts to ensure vaccine production via numerous companies and sources, why the EU did not do enough despite being warned by it's own member states, and as a result Hungary has now told the EU it will be getting it's own vaccines from Russia and elsewhere rather the EU and other nations across the EU are also furious.
The EU have no one but themselves to blame, and blaming the UK or AstraZeneca is pathetic when it was their own inaction and failures that led to the position they now find themselves.
All summer/autumn, while the lazy mouse (EU) was eating berries, having fun, and doing nothing, the industrious mouse (UK) was saving berries, chopping wood, and preparing for winter. When winter comes, the ground is cold and hard and the lazy mouse can't find any berries.
The industrious mouse (UK) is in the "cottage" that he built for himself with a warm fire and plenty of food.
The lazy mouse (EU) knocks on the door because he's cold and hungry. The industrious mouse (UK) lectures him that he should have prepared for winter after his numerous warnings and eventually lets him in.
The morale of the story is "work hard and be prepared for the future".
Although the comedian Ricky Gervais interpreted the morale to be: "f*ck around, do whatever you want, and then scrounge off a do-gooder".
Either way it sounds very similar to the current EU vaccine crisis.
All summer/autumn, while the lazy mouse (EU) was eating berries, having fun, and doing nothing, the industrious mouse (UK) was saving berries, chopping wood, and preparing for winter. When winter comes, the ground is cold and hard and the lazy mouse can't find any berries.
The industrious mouse (UK) is in the "cottage" that he built for himself with a warm fire and plenty of food.
The lazy mouse (EU) knocks on the door because he's cold and hungry. The industrious mouse (UK) lectures him that he should have prepared for winter after his numerous warnings and eventually lets him in.
The morale of the story is "work hard and be prepared for the future".
Although the comedian Ricky Gervais interpreted the morale to be: "f*ck around, do whatever you want, and then scrounge off a do-gooder".
Either way it sounds very similar to the current EU vaccine crisis.
It's been stated that the drug is not effective in over 65's and the EU have not passed the drug for use in the EU as yet.
There has been debate over the phrase in the contract which says "best reasonable effort".
Whilst the two drug manufacturing plants in the UK making the vaccine are nothing to do with AstraZeneca.
So the EU is going to take AstraZeneca to court over a drug they haven't licensed and which they are now claiming is ineffective, and which has a clause in the contract citing "best reasonable effort" as at the time it was not even known if the drug would pass clinical trials and even enter manufacturing, however the UK still financed the drugs development at the University of Oxford.
US company Moderna has also announced it will be cutting it's vaccine deliveries by 25% to the EU due to delivery problems, so is the EU now going to threaten the US, given they had a contract.
Last edited by Brave New World; 01-29-2021 at 08:47 AM..
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