Yes, good point. On top of this supply shmozzle there could be disagreement between the UK and the EU assessment of the efficacy which would open up a whole new can of worms.
Connelly is a good journalist (I don’t know how the fat cats in RTE hang on to him).
I looks like the location of the production facilities is irrelevant (in fact the two UK facilities are the lead facilities for the whole of Europe) as is the timing of the contract signature. It also looks like CEO Pascal Soriot has been somewhat economical with the truth. Plus after canceling today’s EU meeting AZ then agreed to it again but they’re sending Iskra Reic, Executive Vice-President, Europe and Canada instead of old lui meme.
Never was the phrase “hospital pass” more appropriate, my heart goes out to her.
Potentially this could be even more interesting… if it’s true it would mean AZ is caught between a rock and a hard place. Being sued by the EU or sued by the UK isn’t a choice I’d like to have to make.
Mea culpa Mark. I couldn’t resist plagiarising your artwork for a tweet. I hope you don’t mind.
This is really quite exciting. I don’t like boxing but I suppose this how people that do feel when two heavyweights square off. It looks to me as if AZ are all over the floor. Ding, round three…
Feel free - the bastards have earned it
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"“We reject the logic of first come first served. That may work at the neighbourhood butchers but not in contracts, and not in our advance production agreements. There’s no priority clause in the advance production agreement.” Stella Kyriakides, EU health commissioner
Interesting that the head of AstraZeneca is French (Pascal Soriot).
His explanation / response below.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-uk-priority-b901290.html
Great artwork - but I wouldn’t have scrubbed out the word “Conservatives”!!!
Point taken, but I didn’t actually ‘scrub it out’ - I deliberately used a fine airbrush to leave it visible and make my scribble match that of their vacuous oak tree logo.
Incidentally, the trope of the oak tree in English politics and patriotism goes back at least four hundred years - see Schama’s Landscape and Memory
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The pot calling the kettle black.
AstraZeneca jab should not be used on over-65’s, says Germany - report
German authorities have blocked the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on people aged over 65, the Financial Times has reported. (More on Guardian Live)
A statement by the Standing Vaccine Commission at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s main public health agency, reportedly said in a draft recommendation there were “insufficient data currently available to ascertain how effective the vaccination is above 65 years”.
The EMA is hinting at something similar.
It hasn’t even been approved yet for use in the EU.
How can they certain it will be?
Which would mean that a large part of the UK’s efforts to date would be open to question. Really, since day one there has been a cloud over the AZ vaccine, hasn’t there?
Isn’t it an attempt to divert attention from the slow progress of the vaccine in the EU?
Of their slowness in ordering vaccines.
Hungary is now buying its vaccines from Russia.
Where would the vaccines be being diverted from? The factories in the EU are not up to capacity yet, that is the problem. Not forgetting the vaccine is not even approved for use !
What do you mean? UK’s efforts open to question?
Not true.
Belgium is ahead of the UK at an equivalent rate (based on head of population) of 126,000 deaths.
It’s a fact, the UK has the highest number of deaths.
When you claim that it isn’t true, you’re actually erroneously confusing, or conflating the total number of deaths with the mortality rate when these are two different forms of statistic
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Not sure I’m intelligent enough but Belgium’s population is just about 11.5M; UK’s is somewhen between about 68 and 72M (census due this year if it happens)
100,000 Covid attributed deaths in UK; 21,000 Covid attributed deaths in Belgium. So that is at least an equivalent of 126,000 deaths in Belgium.
In raw deaths per capita Belgium and Slovenia are ahead of the UK. However that is based on official numbers and excess deaths is at least 10% above that, maybe more which puts us 1st or 2nd (though, of course, you might be able to revise the figures for either Belgium or Slovenia up depending on their exact method of reporting Covid deaths).