What exactly is happening with AstraZeneca?

RobMc59 wrote: »

This is good news today.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-vaccines-uk-ireland-eu-b1823511.html

Care to explain what is good news about the UK government offering us vaccine surplus that they don't have?

Thanks for alerting us to this breaking story from 'today'.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058150676&page=207

I mean, it has been discussed on here for almost 24hrs. But no matter.

Tippbhoy1 wrote: »

Nah, just the Brits trying to stay relevant with the usual fake news to their minions. They don’t have any spare vaccines, hence the use of the term “might”. What “might” happen of course is sufficient reason for celebration in Blighty these days.

If the EU turns off the tap for a while they “might” not even be able to finish their own rollout in the next 6 months. Lucky An Taoiseach stood up for Blighty there during the week when the fate of the UK rollout was agreed at the European Council.

Ah, brave face there TwitBhoy1, doesn`t alter the fact your EU has fecked you over yet again.
The humiliating sight of Hundreds of your citizens chancing their arm rolling up to our vaccine centres tells it`s own story


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9397309/Hundreds-desperate-Irish-residents-try-book-jabs-NORTHERN-Ireland.html
Hundreds of desperate Irish residents try to book jabs in NORTHERN Ireland where half the population has been vaccinated - compared to just 10% south of the border

• People from as far as Dublin and Galway have even been making the journey
• Around half the adult population has now been inoculated in Northern Ireland
• Head of NI vaccine drive Patricia Donnelly urged ROI residents to stay away

Shameful that the EU has forced the ill and the elderly to do this

loughside wrote: »

Ah, brave face there TwitBhoy1, doesn`t alter the fact your EU has fecked you over yet again.
The humiliating sight of Hundreds of your citizens chancing their arm rolling up to our vaccine centres tells it`s own story


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9397309/Hundreds-desperate-Irish-residents-try-book-jabs-NORTHERN-Ireland.html
Hundreds of desperate Irish residents try to book jabs in NORTHERN Ireland where half the population has been vaccinated - compared to just 10% south of the border

• People from as far as Dublin and Galway have even been making the journey
• Around half the adult population has now been inoculated in Northern Ireland
• Head of NI vaccine drive Patricia Donnelly urged ROI residents to stay away

Shameful that the EU has forced the ill and the elderly to do this

Dude, trying to insult people’s handles and basing your information off what everyone knows are lying jokes of media outlets, you’re embarrassing yourself (again).

loughside wrote: »

Oh dear, lets have another go,


try this joke of a media outlet then, from your own RTE...


https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0323/1205728-northern-ireland-vaccinations/

Don't travel North for jab, says NI, as hundreds turned away

People living in the Republic of Ireland have been warned to stop booking Covid-19 vaccination jabs at centres north of the border unless they are registered with a doctor there or have an NHS number.
Hundreds of people from south of the border, some travelling from as far as Dublin and Galway, have been turned away from centres across Northern Ireland in recent days.



Disgraceful, truly disgraceful.

A few selfish people trying to jump the queue.
Another victory for you.

Bambi wrote: »

That the Germans agreement outside the EU is only supposed to kick in after the EU supplies were met? It's been public knowledge since the deal first came to light, why would anyone ignore it? That would be as silly as pretending that Germany didn't break ranks and procure outside the EU scheme in direct violation of the EUs ban (Which I understood to be legally binding ). The delayed delivery is a fig leaf for the EU so they can let Germany play by its rule book as per usual.


And fair play to the Germans, they had enough foresight of the clusterf**k to come with the EU scheme and hedged their bets.

The agreement was the EU would get their doses first and any extra deals would come after. Now there will come a point in time where Pfizer are delivering their promised doses to the EU and they may produce more and that excess will go the Germany or any other countries who bought outside the EU procurement. So if they are contracted to deliver 100mil doses in Q2 based on ~8mil a week to the EU and they produce 12mil, the 4 mil extra could go to Germany or any other countries who done side deals. Why do you think Germany invested so much in the new plant and ordered well in excess of Pfizer doses.

astrofool wrote: »

There's no ban, countries can make deals to procure any vaccine they want as long as any existing contract with the EU is completed first.

You seem to think this is some sort of EU disharmony, it isn't, it's a perfect example of countries following the EU guidelines while being autonomous to make their own deals which don't impact upon the EU.

Hungary has been procuring Sputnik and other countries have also been doing side deals with other countries full knowledge that they are doing so.

Hasn't this argument been basically settled before anyway?
The German deal was probably against the rules, otherwise the Commission would have directly said it was allowed when questioned and got rid of the controversy.

The German deal has no material impact on the EU commitments so they are letting it slide. It's a theoretical but not practical breach.

https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-coronavirus-vaccine-side-deal-at-odds-with-legally-binding-eu-pact/

If you can find a senior Commission figure stating the German deal was within the letter of the rules I would be interested.

Melanchthon wrote: »

Did you even read the thing? So Von Der Leyen was lying then?

Here's another source, if the German deal was clearly within the rules the Commission would have said directly.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/commission-takes-evasive-action-over-germanys-vaccine-side-deal/






Your saying I am making this up when you clearly don't have a baldy notion about this topic at all.

Here is the relevant text.



The fact you bring up the Hungarian deal relating to Sputnik is weird because the EU doesnt have an agreement with Sputnik. The only reason to bring it up is if you don't actually understand the agreement we are talking about, or do understand it but have made it your task to defend them too the hilt even though it doesn't matter a damn.


Source
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/annex_to_the_commission_decision_on_approving_the_agreement_with_member_states_on_procuring_covid-19_vaccines_on_behalf_of_the_member_states_and_related_procedures_.pdf





See the actual agreement text, No action is being taken because the German deal makes no material difference to the EU agreement, this is why no commission person is directly saying the EU isn't in breach of the rules. Same as just because someone is not charged doesn't mean that someone hasn't broken the letter of the law, look at the UK and Dominic Cummings as a good example.

Now I will probably get asked why I keep going on about this and that it doesn't matter at all, which is actually true but it doesn't take away from the fact of what the document actually says.

In case an APA containing an obligation to acquire vaccine doses has been concluded with a specific manufacturer, the Member States having made use of the opt-out provided under the present Agreement can enter into separate negotiations with the same manufacturer after the APA under the present Agreement has been signed.

Did German opt-out of any additional purchases of Pfizer, if they did then that clause could absolve them in regard to separate separate negotiations?

Bambi wrote: »

Seem very angry there, emotion getting the better of you, which seems to be a thing in this thread. People like yourself putting "side deal" in quotes when Germanys deals outside of the EUs scheme are public knowledge, or the genius who wasn't even aware of them.

Yeah I get annoyed about deliberate distortions. Your own postings later show you are following this topic closely and very well aware that Germany was getting no extra vaccines before other EU countries as a result of their side deal (quoted because that's how you described it).
So you omitted that small detail because it doesn't support your argument that Germany shows no solidarity towards other countries in the EU & has no committment to the EU.

Afaik (maybe you can fill me in if seeing as you're are following all of this so closely) Germany has been heavily involved in R & D for 2 of the most promising vaccines.

1 of these vaccines is approved and already the mainstay in use across most of the EU incl. Ireland so far. Germany has considerably more resources (larger economy, more industry) than the UK.

Despite this, Germany had not received extra supplies of these 2 vaccines thus far and it's vaccination rate is similar to the rest of the EU.

That is practical, real world evidence of solidarity despite the leading question "Should we question Germany's commitment to the union?" + your statement "We're paying a price alright but its not for solidarity".

What have the German's ever done to you Bambi?

Bambi wrote: »

Ranting about Boris and spin by the British Press rather than accepting the issue was a failure of the EU. I dunno what to tell you, fuhrer bunker seems the best analogy to this behaviour

Don't think I'm guilty of "rants" about Boris or the British press or refusing to accept failures of the EU as regards it's vaccination programme. If I wanted to criticse people for it, Hitler's bunker and WW2 would not be 1st thing that pops to mind as appropriate. 2 world wars and 1 world cup I suppose? However I would really advise taking what the British media says about the EU or Germany (esp. their tabloids) with a very large grain of salt.

astrofool wrote: »

You're just making this up, there was no rule against making deals outside the EU, it's that simple, just as if Ireland wanted to go alone outside the EU, we were, and still are, free to do so.

I think there would be a problem if it's with same companies the EU already has contracts with (which I assume would be most of the large Western pharma companies that have or are developing a vaccine).
That is what the IMO unfair & harsh criticism of Germany was about. I am not clued in to what is going on there but can only imagine the political pressures they must be under over speed of EU vaccine rollout (possibly more comparing with the US than the UK), given points I made above.