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Coronavirus


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3 hours ago, Sugar Ape said:

Fucked up with the Oxford vaccine the EU haven’t they? Crazy if the bolded part is true. Macron, that German newspaper that briefed it was only 8% effective and others will have blood on their hands. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/24/astrazeneca-expected-to-miss-eu-covid-vaccine-supply-target-by-half-in-second-quarter-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

EU 'catching up' with UK Covid vaccination rollout – Von der Leyen

 

The EU is “catching up” with the UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme, the European commission president has insisted as Hungary’s government started to administer a Chinese vaccine in the face of shortages.

 

A lack of doses among the EU member states continues to blight national plans, with Belgium the latest to warn of “serious delays” to its schedule, with vaccination of people over 65 postponed to the end of March.

 

There is also mounting evidence of the AstraZeneca vaccine being rejected and left unused in fridges following weeks of bad publicity, including Emmanuel Macron’s unsubstantiated claim that it is “quasi-ineffective” among older groups.

 

The latest figures suggest 27% of the UK population has received a first jab compared with 6% of the EU population.


Ursula von der Leyen told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in Germany that while she understood the frustration there were signs of improvement.

 

“I understand very well the impatience that, now that the vaccine is available, citizens want to be vaccinated as quickly as possible and finally be protected,” she said. “We’re catching up. Britain has inoculated 17m first doses. There are 27m in the EU.

 

“In Italy, with a population similar to that of Great Britain, twice as many citizens received full vaccination protection with the second dose as in the UK.”

 

The commission president added she would have no concerns about being vaccinated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.

 

“I would be vaccinated with the vaccine from AstraZeneca just as safely as with the products from BioNTech/Pfizer or Moderna,” she said. “When we started looking for the most promising out of the hundreds of candidates 10 months ago, we assumed an effectiveness of between 50 and 70%. Now everyone is on top of it. The vaccine has been carefully examined, found to be safe and effective, and approved.”

 

The EU’s deployment has struggled to gain traction in large part due to shortages in the first quarter of this year from suppliers including AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer.

 

On Wednesday, Hungary became the first EU nation to start using China’s Sinopharm vaccine. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said in a Facebook video that it had been necessary to avoid a third wave of infection.

 

The country of 10 million people has ordered 5m doses of the Chinese vaccine. Hungary was also the first to start administering Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine after its national regulator gave it emergency approval.

 

On Tuesday, AstraZeneca denied reports it would deliver fewer than half of the Covid-19 vaccines it was contracted to supply in the second quarter.

 

The company said it was striving to increase productivity to deliver the promised 180m doses from its global supply chains after Reuters reported that an EU official, directly involved in talks with the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker, had disclosed the company “would deliver less than 90m doses in the second quarter”.

 

AstraZeneca’s contract (pdf) with the EU, which was leaked last week, showed the company had committed to delivering 180m doses to the 27-nation bloc in the second quarter.

 

Asked about the EU official’s comment on vaccine doses, a spokesperson for AstraZeneca said the “most recent Q2 forecast for the delivery of its Covid vaccine aims to deliver in line with its contract with the European commission”.

 

He added: “At this stage AstraZeneca is working to increase productivity in its EU supply chain and to continue to make use of its global capability in order to achieve delivery of 180m doses to the EU in the second quarter.”

 

A spokesperson for the commission, which coordinates talks with vaccine manufacturers, said it could not comment on the discussions because they were confidential.

 

He said the EU should have more than enough shots to hit its vaccination targets if the expected and agreed deliveries from other suppliers were met, regardless of the situation with AstraZeneca.

 

The EU’s 27 heads of state and government will debate how to speed up the rollout at a virtual summit on Thursday. Von der Leyen said the issues of production and the need for a speedier means of authorisation, echoing the fast-track process used by the UK’s regulator, would be discussed.

 

The use of vaccination passports as part of a reopening of the tourism sector will also be debated by the leaders, with the Greek government particularly vociferous on the issue.

 

Von der Leyen said: “The vaccination certificate remains the first step and is important from a medical point of view because we have to monitor the effects and side-effects.

 

“On Thursday, we will discuss with the EU heads of state and government whether you can turn it into a vaccination certificate that gives you more freedom.

 

“Because that is a political question I think it’s important that everyone gets a fair chance to participate. Whether this is in the form of a vaccination offer or in some other way. But we’re not there yet.”

Can you blame them doubting the British? Considering the ham-fisted debacle, this tory government have offered up so far. 

 

 

The scientists have saved the day here, not that shower. 

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3 hours ago, Spy Bee said:

Yes it is. We need to already start learning lessons for the next one. We've had 5 in two decades, so we'll be having more. We need an organised, funded and coordinated global response.

Whhhooooaaa steady on there lad, bit much to ask is it not.

 

Lets continue to do what we have done to date: organise, properly fund and coordinate. You can have any 2 of those 3 but not all.

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2 minutes ago, Chip Butty said:

Can you blame them doubting the British? Considering the ham-fisted debacle, this tory government have offered up so far. 

 

 

The scientists have saved the day here, not that shower. 

The President of France and the German equivalent of the Financial Times amongst others have been spreading disinformation about the AstraZeneca vaccine which is going to cost lives. That has nothing to do with the British government. Pretty sure everyone on here would agree they've been shite but don't really see what that has to do with the EU fucking up their vaccine roll out.

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4 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

The President of France and the German equivalent of the Financial Times amongst others have been spreading disinformation about the AstraZeneca vaccine which is going to cost lives. That has nothing to do with the British government. Pretty sure everyone on here would agree they've been shite but don't really see what that has to do with the EU fucking up their vaccine roll out.

We, or more to the point the government, look useless, I wouldn't trust a country that looked as useless as we must from a far. Granted the EU have took up the baton of being useless, but follow the British government in to the handling of the whole affair?  no chance and then the British cry Eureka! we have the solution. Just not feeling it and I can see why they are/were, slow on the uptake. 

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14 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

 

The EU have made complete cunts of themselves and have played politics with millions of people's lives.

 

As Sec said, they've gone full Everton on this.

 

The likes of Serbia and Hungary have already thought fuck waiting for you twats to organise anything.

 

It literally couldn't have played out any better for the Tory Brexitier brigade.

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2 minutes ago, Chip Butty said:

We, or more to the point the government, look useless, I wouldn't trust a country that looked as useless as we must from a far. Granted the EU have took up the baton of being useless, but follow the British government in to the handling of the whole affair?  no chance and then the British cry Eureka! we have the solution. Just not feeling it and I can see why they are/were, slow on the uptake. 

No one has asked them to follow the UK government and I don't see where anyone has said follow the British, that has nothing to do with why they were badmouthing the vaccine anyway. The vaccine is getting manufactured around the world including in the EU not just the UK. I think most of it comes from India. It's obviously been done out of spite because they aren't getting the amount they wanted as they took too long signing the contracts for it so they've tried to downplay how effective the vaccine is.

 

I'm all for ripping the Tories as much as the next man but in this case it would be making things up to let the EU off the hook. As Jairz has alluded to, Hungary have had to go to Russia and China for vaccines as they are desperate. This is firmly on the EU.

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18 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

No one has asked them to follow the UK government and I don't see where anyone has said follow the British, that has nothing to do with why they were badmouthing the vaccine anyway. The vaccine is getting manufactured around the world including in the EU not just the UK. I think most of it comes from India. It's obviously been done out of spite because they aren't getting the amount they wanted as they took too long signing the contracts for it so they've tried to downplay how effective the vaccine is.

 

I'm all for ripping the Tories as much as the next man but in this case it would be making things up to let the EU off the hook. As Jairz has alluded to, Hungary have had to go to Russia and China for vaccines as they are desperate. This is firmly on the EU.


Spot on with all of that, but the Hungary issue is a little more complex and people are playing politics, on both sides.

 

The EU are not happy with Orban and he’s started to flutter his eyes at the ever open arms of Putin, the vaccines thing is a fuck you to the EU.

 

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/10/21/europes-sanctions-dilemma-how-to-punish-hungary-without-hurting-hungarians/

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2 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:


Spot on with all of that, but the Hungary issue is a little more complex and people are playing politics.

 

The EU are not happy with Orban and he’s started to flutter his eyes at the ever open arms of Putin, the vaccines thing is a fuck you to the EU.

 

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/10/21/europes-sanctions-dilemma-how-to-punish-hungary-without-hurting-hungarians/

Of course Orban is a cunt, but if the EU would have sorted out their vaccine roll out he wouldn’t have the opportunity, or need, to go to Russia and China. 
 

They’ve presented him with an open goal so no surprise he’s took his chance. And even though he’s undoubtedly got ulterior motives for getting the vaccine from them I can’t actually blame him if those countries can supply him quicker. 

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Just now, Sugar Ape said:

Of course Orban is a cunt, but if the EU would have sorted out their vaccine roll out he wouldn’t have the opportunity, or need, to go to Russia and China. 
 

They’ve presented him with an open goal so no surprise he’s took his chance. And even though he’s undoubtedly got ulterior motives for getting the vaccine from them I can’t actually blame him if those countries can supply him quicker. 


Yep, truly a tale with no hero’s. 

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1 hour ago, Sugar Ape said:

The President of France and the German equivalent of the Financial Times amongst others have been spreading disinformation about the AstraZeneca vaccine which is going to cost lives. That has nothing to do with the British government. Pretty sure everyone on here would agree they've been shite but don't really see what that has to do with the EU fucking up their vaccine roll out.

I think it is political though. One of the few things the Tories have got right in all this is the vaccine. Be that they backed loads of horses when buying early on, the vaccine role out or they made the investment in the research for the Oxford/AZ solution. Whole certain countries may have dealt with the pandemic better than us, the EU as a whole has had a fucking nightmare over the vaccine. Personally, I think the management of this whole vaccine process has done more harm to the EU project than anything the UK has done with Brexit. Macron knows this and is throwing a Trump card. 

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2 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

I think it is political though. One of the few things the Tories have got right in all this is the vaccine. Be that they backed loads of horses when buying early on, the vaccine role out or they made the investment in the research for the Oxford/AZ solution. Whole certain countries may have dealt with the pandemic better than us, the EU as a whole has had a fucking nightmare over the vaccine. Personally, I think the management of this whole vaccine process has done more harm to the EU project than anything the UK has done with Brexit. Macron knows this and is throwing a Trump card. 

Yep this must be manna from heaven for the likes of Le Pen. Who knows the damage this could do down the line. 
 

I’m just saying I don’t like the idea of letting the EU off the hook to any degree because of it being perceived as somehow being the fault of the British. For once The Tories haven’t actually done anything wrong, and you can say that you can’t blame the EU for not following the UK but they shouldn’t be following anyone else anyway.
 

They’ve got their own scientists and agencies and a much bigger budget than us and they make their own decisions. I’m sure Macron and Von Der Leyen would love to blame us but it’s firmly on them. 
 

Getting sidetracked a bit anyway because my only point initially is that by spreading disinformation about the Oxford vaccine they’ve made an already bad situation worse and probably cost a lot of lives. 

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15 minutes ago, Sugar Ape said:

Yep this must be manna from heaven for the likes of Le Pen. Who knows the damage this could do down the line. 
 

I’m just saying I don’t like the idea of letting the EU off the hook to any degree because of it being perceived as somehow being the fault of the British. For once The Tories haven’t actually done anything wrong, and you can say that you can’t blame the EU for not following the UK but they shouldn’t be following anyone else anyway.
 

They’ve got their own scientists and agencies and a much bigger budget than us and they make their own decisions. I’m sure Macron and Von Der Leyen would love to blame us but it’s firmly on them. 
 

Getting sidetracked a bit anyway because my only point initially is that by spreading disinformation about the Oxford vaccine they’ve made an already bad situation worse and probably cost a lot of lives. 

I agree with pretty much most of that. The reality of the whole situation is with this vaccine programme, the insistence of the EU procuring vaccines centrally, they've show the EU organisations up to be the incompetent bunch of cunts the brexiteers and the mates on the continent have always said. 

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So the government want kids in school for longer hours and a shorter summer holiday.

 

"Hey kids! We know that your lives have been shit for a year, you've barely seen your mates, you've been working on computers all day stuck with your family - so how about being in school 8am to 5pm, plus we'll take two weeks off your summer holiday! Sound good?!"

 

Your cool Uncle Gav.

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2 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

So the government want kids in school for longer hours and a shorter summer holiday.

 

"Hey kids! We know that your lives have been shit for a year, you've barely seen your mates, you've been working on computers all day stuck with your family - so how about being in school 8am to 5pm, plus we'll take two weeks off your summer holiday! Sound good?!"

 

Your cool Uncle Gav.

And the comments sections in the tory press? Teachers are typical lefty liberals. Don't want to do any work like the rest of us. Yeah because a teachers day starts at 9am and finishes at 3:30pm. Oh absolutely. Fucking thick lying racist brexit tory cunts. 

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1 minute ago, johnsusername said:

So the government want kids in school for longer hours and a shorter summer holiday.

 

"Hey kids! We know that your lives have been shit for a year, you've barely seen your mates, you've been working on computers all day stuck with your family - so how about being in school 8am to 5pm, plus we'll take two weeks off your summer holiday! Sound good?!"

 

Your cool Uncle Gav.

Most kids can't concentrate for 1 lesson never mind another 3 hrs of lesson time.

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