What exactly is happening with AstraZeneca?

We can be hugely critical of the state online, but I think the Irish relationship with authority is very much one of ownership of said authority.

France has huge issues with conspiracy theories online merging with anti-government feelings and also a far more authoritarian approach to government, which is quite top down and only responds during elections. There were regular riots every weekend for the last few years.

They have an electoral system which runs in two rounds: so in round 1 you’ve all the candidates, that whittles down to the top two candidates, who have a run off in the second round a week later.

The problem with that is you end up with Marine Le Pen, who in reality will only ever commands maybe 25% and a candidate like Macron who also will only in reality also only commands about 25%, but because he’s the least worst option, he borrows the votes of people who would never vote for him if she wasn’t the only alternative.

So basically you end up with a deeply unpopular president, only elected because he’s less unpleasant a choice than Le Pen, and who has borrowed the votes of a vast range of people who are largely on the left, socialists, green etc and can’t stand him. Then he tries to implement a pro business agenda, without any need to reflect on any kind of proportional representation democracy or coalition etc and he ends up walking into clash after clash with people protesting.

I remember people voting for Chirac in the second round (against Le Pens father) and casting their votes wearing large rubber gloves as a symbolic protest!

If you then bring in an intangible virus as the threat and the government starts imposing lockdowns, all those people who don’t trust the state in the first place all suddenly falsely conclude that it’s a conspiracy theory and an excuse to quash the protests with draconian curbs on mass gatherings etc and that’s just the rational ones. You’ve another cohort who think they’re being spied on by their smart meters (there were mass protest against these) or that there’s some plan to inject them with mind control chips etc etc

Then to make it worse the was a vaccine scandal in France a couple of decades ago which shattered confidence in the state and vaccines.

We have people on here who keep praising the French for their protesting against the government. They only protest because they feel they’re voiceless and have an electoral system that doesn’t produce a reflection of public opinion.

If you go back before 2000 the presidential term was 7 years, so there was a sense that street protest was the only way of getting heard, and arguably it was true too.

All of the above in recent years has fed into a broader anti government sentiment and that’s blended with all sorts of modern conspiracy theories about everything you can think of, which is where you’re getting an element of the gilet jaune / yellow vest movement, which can be so broad it’s hard to define.

Anyway, all I’m saying really is what’s going on in France with this was inevitable and the AstraZeneca fight just added a “see! I told you!!” narrative to the conspiracy theories.

I’d also add our lockdowns were largely enforced with public buy in. They were and are long, but they’re not harshly enforced. In France you literally had to fill a form in to walk the dog at one stage & the Spanish lockdown included not being able to leave your house, even for exercise.

This narrative online here that we have had the strictest lockdown in Europe is really not accurate. We’ve had a relatively conservative approach, but with largely self policed, public buy in and not cops walking around the place looking menacing, which has been the case in plenty of European countries.

Also look at Hungary! Despite all the ranting and raving (including on Irish Internet forums) about Russian vaccines, they’ve fallen to the bottom of the league table for rollout. The problems aren’t supply. They’re public trust and ability to deliver the shots efficiently.

If they don’t build public trust again in quite a few continental counties, there’s a very significant possibility of the situation dragging on and on with variants emerging as they won’t be able to get the vaccines rolled out.

They key test here will be the mass rollout phase in the big centres and ensuring it keeps flowing to GPs &’pharmacies as the campaign ramps up.

We probably should try to follow Denmark on really, really ramping up the bandwidth and attempting to get it done by June. We might miss the target (as might they) if there’s any supply glitch, but it’s worth trying it.

The cost trade off is probably worth it.

1. Economy back to something more like normal sooner.
2. Social impact reduced - deaths, illness, access to education, general stress & turmoil.
3. Ireland’s reputation as a place to base business improves.
4. Our economic situation would be strengthened by being and being seen to be able to manage this calmly and successfully.

Maxing this out here is very important and I genuinely think we have everyone on the same team on this - all the political parties are on the basically same page (even if reading different parts of it) the public wants it to happen as quickly as possible and it should work very smoothly if we all just get on with it.