Coronavirus

[Sir Velo]

Let's hope they can keep it up. It's so out of character I don't quite believe it.

Not really. They know the media will report the position anyway.

[Frances_iom]

.. If NI needed vaccine, why wasn't it treated like a 'region' of the UK and supplied by the same routes?

It is - the NI chief minister is on record - the vaccine comes in via standard NHS channels - why shouldn't it?

The ambiguity of NI is IMO a stupidity of the Brexit agreement and once this EU engineered dispute is settled needs relooking at in the cold light of the EU decision that when it appears in their interest a land border was ok.

ETA my use of vindictive was that it would appear that the original EU plan was to override the UK/Pfizer agreement and prevent all export to the UK hence the triggering of article 16 - cooler heads seem to have pointed out that the UK closing its supply of components might rather upset this. Personally I would have used back channels with the Irish and offered them some of the Oxford vaccine to allow start of their vaccination of care homes etc if needed, based on argument that with free movement in the CTA this would be good for both sides.

[french frank]

The ambiguity of NI is IMO a stupidity of the Brexit agreement and once this EU engineered dispute is settled needs relooking at in the cold light of the EU decision that when it appears in their interest a land border was ok.

This is the problem: when you read the other side of the argument it looks different which is why the government reaction - if true as reported - is correct. To calm down and leave the rhetoric out. But that's the diplomatic way which doesn't always come naturally.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55876176

[LHC]

It is - the NI chief minister is on record - the vaccine comes in via standard NHS channels - why shouldn't it?

The ambiguity of NI is IMO a stupidity of the Brexit agreement and once this EU engineered dispute is settled needs relooking at in the cold light of the EU decision that when it appears in their interest a land border was ok.

ETA my use of vindictive was that it would appear that the original EU plan was to override the UK/Pfizer agreement and prevent all export to the UK hence the triggering of article 16 - cooler heads seem to have pointed out that the UK closing its supply of components might rather upset this. Personally I would have used back channels with the Irish and offered them some of the Oxford vaccine to allow start of their vaccination of care homes etc if needed, based on argument that with free movement in the CTA this would be good for both sides.

NI's record on vaccination is very good. For some time it was vaccinating faster than any other parts of the UK. As of yesterday, 10.5% of the NI population has been vaccinated. For comparison, England has now managed 13%, Wales 12% and Scotland 10%. NI has no need to receive vaccines from the EU (other than as part of the contractual deliveries Pfizer is delivering to the UK). The sole reason for invoking Article 16 was so that the EU could prevent any vaccines being exported to any part of the UK. It was completely nonsensical, and a ridiculous overreaction on the part of the EU Commission as part of its attempt to place the blame for its own failings onto the UK.

[Frances_iom]

Let's hope they can keep it up. It's so out of character I don't quite believe it.

Boris's new partner getting rid of DC was I suspect a major part of the new rationality - if only she could somehow prevent the standard BJ foot-in-mouth approach to interviews etc. Getting rid of some of the current nodding donkeys in cabinet would also be a major improvement.

[Bryn]

This morning I had a text message from "Berkshire Primary Care Ltd" offering me a range of appointment times for a first vaccination at the local main hub. No hint of privatisation there, eh? The first offered time was too soon for me to be able to get there for it. I have thus booked the second appointment available, for 18:30 today.

[kernelbogey]

Cross-posting from Private Passions thread:

An extraordinarily moving and heart-warming edition of this programme.

Rachel Clarke is a doctor who specialises in palliative care. She’s now on the Covid frontline; in March 2020 she moved to Horton General Hospital outside Banbury to care for the most gravely unwell patients on the Covid Wards.

[french frank]

This morning I had a text message from "Berkshire Primary Care Ltd" offering me a range of appointment times for a first vaccination at the local main hub. No hint of privatisation there, eh? The first offered time was too soon for me to be able to get there for it. I have thus booked the second appointment available, for 18:30 today.

Hope they didn't ask you to pay for it!

Another point that puzzles me: we ordered 100m doses of the AZ vaccine which is almost enough to vaccinate the entire adult population, twice, certainly if the Omni 70.6% take up is correct. What about the Pfizer vaccine and the others that we've also been signing up for? Does this cause shortages for others?

[Bryn]

Hope they didn't ask you to pay for it! . . .

No. Apart from the "Ltd" aspect, it's legit. Though the confirmation text message said the second vaccination appointment would be notified by my surgery, I fully expect it to come from the same source. Oh, and the venue is the Waitrose Sports and Social Club.

[teamsaint]

Hope they didn't ask you to pay for it!

Another point that puzzles me: we ordered 100m doses of the AZ vaccine which is almost enough to vaccinate the entire adult population, twice, certainly if the Omni 70.6% take up is correct. What about the Pfizer vaccine and the others that we've also been signing up for? Does this cause shortages for others?

Most of the developed world has ordered multiple jabs per person, presumably in part to cover themselves for a year . An annual boost will mean needing at least 3 per person who wants the vaccination by spring 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/canada-and-uk-among-countries-with-most-vaccine-doses-ordered-per-person

The UK govt has certainly talked about redistributing excess capacity, and has been very generous ( compared to others) on the Covax scheme.

Back on the AZ row, the French and German govts seem to have taken the fight directly to AZ. As others have mentioned, AZ may have over promised, but the the board of AZ may well think hard about where to do business going forward, give that the deals were done at cost. Of course, that may cut both ways.

[french frank]

Back on the AZ row, the French and German govts seem to have taken the fight directly to AZ. As others have mentioned, AZ may have over promised, but the the board of AZ may well think hard about where to do business going forward, give that the deals were done at cost.

Yes, speaking of the EU learning (hard) lessons, contracts that guarantee only 'our best efforts' to supply may not be worth the paper they're written on. The UK obviously had a full guarantee.

[LHC]

Hope they didn't ask you to pay for it!

Another point that puzzles me: we ordered 100m doses of the AZ vaccine which is almost enough to vaccinate the entire adult population, twice, certainly if the Omni 70.6% take up is correct. What about the Pfizer vaccine and the others that we've also been signing up for? Does this cause shortages for others?

I don’t think our orders will cause shortages elsewhere. For example, AZ have contracts to supply 2.6 billion vaccine doses worldwide, and manufacturing facilities in the UK, EU, US and India, so our 100 million vaccines to be supplied from the UK facilities over the course of this year should have a limited impact on the overall supply globally.

I think the Indian plants will be producing the majority of vaccines for the rest of the world (India is a major producer of medicines, and has considerable experience in scaling up production). At present India is using all of the vaccines it can produce, but there is a commitment to supply vaccines tho the rest of Asia, and then other parts of the world.

Most countries have over-ordered vaccines, because when the orders were placed, we had no idea which vaccines would be successful, so it made sense to make sure that if one or two failed, you still had enough of the others to still meet your needs. Canada has ordered the highest number of doses per person compared to any other country, having ordered over 350 million vaccinations for a population of just over 38 million people, equating to nine doses per person.

We have at least undertaken to send surplus vaccines to poorer countries once our vaccination programme has completed. It is possible that we might start doing so earlier, as per the WHO’s suggestion.

This graphic shows the full scale of vaccine orders globally.

[Frances_iom]

Hope they didn't ask you to pay for it!

Another point that puzzles me: we ordered 100m doses of the AZ vaccine which is almost enough to vaccinate the entire adult population, twice, ...

The vaccine is delivered over a period of time, likewise the Pfizer - the idea of the various hubs etc is to consume vaccine at the production/delivery rate with some buffer stock in the pipeline to allow peaks + troughs in delivery/use to be somewhat smoothed out - the Pfizer, with its more awkward storage problems being used in the larger hubs whilst the more easily stored + moved Oxford being used in smaller batches for use at care homes, individual surgeries and smaller hubs away from main hubs.
The initial order was placed, as I've pointed out, partly as a way of funding and without knowledge of how it and/or other vaccines would pan out during the clinical trials - the EU made a couple of what turned out to be poor choices at this point in the development cycle hence their current difficulties - they also had a much slower approval regime whilst the UK being heavily engaged in development also applied a more nimble approach here - again the EU were wrong footed and their annoyance at the UK being obvious both in the German remarks and the otherwise inexplicable utterings of Macron who suddenly displayed an otherwise unknown background in virology.

Possibly the development phase of the vaccine played to a supposed 'Anglo-Saxon' pragmatism ie do what works and get the right people in the right places - maybe the full production phase might well be better suited to the supposed 'Germanic' formal + bureaucratic approach.

[LHC]

Yes, speaking of the EU learning (hard) lessons, contracts that guarantee only 'our best efforts' to supply may not be worth the paper they're written on. The UK obviously had a full guarantee.

I suspect the UK’s supply was also on a ‘best efforts’ basis. We were supposed to get 40m doses from AZ by the end of 2020, but have had nothing like that yet. The big difference is that manufacture started 3 months earlier, and our contract ensured that we had first priority for all vaccines made in the UK.

[Frances_iom]

The UK obviously had a full guarantee.

No they had the benefit of a few extra months to iron out production problems - again I make my statement that I am amazed that the EU + AZ were not talking at a technical level when it had been clear and should have been anticipated, that difficulties would arise - or is it just the 'pragmatic' Anglo-Saxons who anticipated this and that EU bureaucrats assume once they have issued an order that it will be 100% carried out.

ETA - looks as though I'm a much slower typist than LHC - we seem to be making very similar posts - maybe we both come from an engineering background.
Also to add note that the UK Government has been very coy about actual deliveries