Pfizer exports from the EU to the UK have now been blocked so the UK can’t get supplies for both new and the second dose of that vaccine.
There is an exemption list of about 120 countries and the UK has just been taken off it. This article mentions UK Australia and Canada as being off the exemptions list, and some developing countries. Another one lists Russia and Turkey.
This is really nasty and it shows that the Oxford vaccine being made by a UK factory was an outstanding decision – and it was a conscious decision, which was not discussed openly at the time.
Graham wrote:
Why is that?
Everyone is human. They are under enormous pressure, both from their own personal desire to extend as many lives as possible and limit damage to the economy, and to keep their jobs. And I believe that the primary driver is trying to do the right thing with an eye on career, although there may be the odd exception.
People react differently to pressure and slow progress (I hesitate to call it failure, it’s just slower). Quite a lot of people get aggressive / angry when things don’t go as desired, even if there is nothing to blame. We have all seen people yell at the gate staff when the flight is delayed – same thing here.
Now combine that with residual anger over Brexit, and you get stupid posturing on both sides. UK gloating about being ahead (certainly the press) making the EU look bad did not help.
I wonder if the number of people on the mainland who read the Daily Mail is comparable to how many Brits read Der Spiegel. I reckon both are close to zero 
The world has changed quite a bit in the time it took me to bleed the brakes on my bike
I expect you are right!
I just had a quick look at the websites of La Liberation and Le Monde, half expecting to see heated anti-UK rhetoric, but far from it.
“La Libé” has complaints about Sanofi’s performance: ‘checks (i.e. setbacks) despite the cheques, divis to shareholders’ and AstraZeneca only appears because Der Spiegel has decoded some of the redactions in the AZ-EU contract.
Le Monde reports the approval of the AZ vaccine quite high up, and about one third of the way down they report a ‘difference in interpretations’ of the AZ contract. They quote from section 5.4 – ‘the British factories are [in the pre-order contract] and that’s why they must supply’
So EU blockades Pfizer vaccines to the UK because they don’t receive enough AZ ones ????
I only follow this story on here.
Tonight’s news is that anyone exporting vaccines (or possibly vaccine related materials – not sure?) from the EU to the UK has to apply for an export license.
What is not known is whether any applications have yet been made, and been refused, but clearly refusing them is the objective otherwise this is pointless.
@ Cobalt @ Peter & @ DavidS your comments in your latest posts for me read so true. I also well aporeciated Cobalts breakdown of the vaccines ordered from whom by whom.
The reason I wrote what I did was simply to point out 4 things a) in my experience there are usually two sides to every story b) The more vehement your claims to be right the more vehemently others will disagree, splitting often on a near 50/50 basis. c) contracts are written or should be, to be fair to borh parties and that usually means that if there is a dispute both sides will claim to be in the right, which is why very often a judge has to decide. d) As individuals we are all lone voices and the people we are accusing, blaming or railing about, are not listening. There might be a better chance if we could collectively agree even on EuroGA:)
For myself I am always up for a good debate, and for me that is when each post brings something new. As a woolly minded liberal I can always be swayed by the strength of a good argument but that usually depends on facts rather than opinion or fortune telling.
Peter wrote:
Pfizer exports from the EU to the UK have now been blocked so the UK can’t get supplies for both new and the second dose of that vaccine.
Are you sure about that? I only skimmed the articles listed, but it seems to me that it’s simply the case that the UK isn’t exempt from the authorisation announced yesterday. All exports require approval. But I don’t see any blanked ban on exporting to the UK. That would be outrageous. Pfizer has substantially kept its commitments and shouldn’t be affected by the approval process.
Meanwhile the EU commission has triggered article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol to avoid Northern Ireland being used as a backdoor. Apparently they did this without any consultation with the national governments, only informing them afterwards. The Irish government is none too pleased to put it mildly. I think the Commission really overstepped the mark there and there will be big consequences to that for all concerned. The press here is reporting that a resolution to that is imminent.
It seems to me that the commission is making a fatal political mistake and getting caught up in the emotion. Every politician knows not to get caught up in the emotion of a crises and “don’t let a good crises go to waste”.
There is every reason to use this as a turning point in the already poor vaccine roll out in Europe. Get all the players into a room, including AZ, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Curevax and anyone else likely to be approved in the next 2 months along with any other pharmas that can help. Half the construction industry is shut down in lockdown at present. Why not use that capacity to build new plants really quickly. If the Chinese can build a hospital in 2 weeks, surely we can build some pharmaceutical plants in a month. Then 2 months to get the production going. Money isn’t the issue. If the vaccines cost twice the price as a result it’s still cheap compared to the costs of lockdown and no one will complain. Who cares if someone else makes the Pfizer vaccine for example? Pay Pfizer their €30, and pay whoever can make it another €30 for the manufacture. Everyone is happy. That might mean that Q1 vaccine delivery is way below expected, but Q2 might be well above planned. Normal Q2 delivery plus extra generated by the new plants or reorganised production. As a result maybe we could have all of Europe vaccinated by the end of Q2 instead of Q3.
Oh, and the EMA needs to get it’s act into gear so that other vaccines can be brought though the approval process and a decision made without the normal delay. Getting other vaccines online earlier would solve some of this problem.
If that happened, nobody would remember the contract squabbles. No one would blame anyone for the negotiation terms. No one would complain about the price. Instead it would be a great news story about how everyone was vaccinated early and the economy was opened ahead of schedule.
The Commission needs to focus on finding solutions rather than who to blame and fighting over the restricted supply of vaccines. There is a big prize to be won if played correctly and it’s not going to be won by taking a few 10’s of million does back from the UK. They need to focus on the big picture, not the small one.
Message to Ursla : – Focus on the solution, not the blame.
Meanwhile the EU commission has triggered article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol to avoid Northern Ireland being used as a backdoor
Brussels appears to have reversed that one about 15 mins ago…
All exports require approval.
Not before today, AFAIK.
Brussels badly misjudged that one. I can only assume they imagined that the Irish on both sides of the soft border would turn on London and demand they back down so it could be resolved. In a national government that sort of mistake would mean resignations.
As @dublinpilot says, solve the problem. Even if the EU took the entire UK AZ production it is only 2m doses a week… hardly solves the problem they have.
