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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

'The refrigerators will be empty:' Has the EU vaccine strategy gone off the rails?

The EU is under increasing pressure as member states face unexpected supply issues just one month into their vaccine programmes.

EUROPE IS THE sick man of the northern hemisphere when it comes to its vaccine strategy.

That’s the perception at least. Bedevilled by setbacks, supply issues and bad press, European Union officials and institutions are facing intense scrutiny after a chaotic week in which the roll-out crawled to a near-halt in several member states including Italy and Spain.

All aspects of the EU strategy — from the approach to procurement to the funding mechanisms to the regulatory approval process itself — have faced heavy criticism in recent days.

Speedy starts in the United Kingdom and the United States have done nothing to improve the public perception that the EU has fumbled the ball in some respects.

Screenshot 2021-01-29 at 17.50.52 Analysis by UK life sciences analytics company Airfinity suggest that, at the current rate, the EU is expected to reach herd immunity by late October.

Some recent estimates, based on the agreed vaccine supply deals, suggest that the EU27 will have to wait until late October to reach herd immunity on foot of its vaccination programme, compared to mid-July for the UK and early August for the US.

But how valid is the critique, what sort of conclusions can we reach at this early stage of the process and what is the impact on the ground?

The procurement strategy

“The Commission is negotiating intensely to build a diversified portfolio of vaccines for EU citizens at fair prices.”

So said the European Commission in a press release at the beginning of January 2021.

It’s this “diversified portfolio” that defines the European vaccine strategy.

And on paper, up until last week at least, it seemed to be a successful one — the EU has secured contracts for a portfolio of 2.3 billion doses of various vaccines; over five times the population of the EU27.

It includes 400 million doses from Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca; 300 million doses from French firm Sanofi in partnership with UK-based GSK; 400 million doses from US-anchored Johnson & Johnson; 600 million doses from the partnership between Pfizer and BioNTech; 405 million doses from German company Curevac and 160 million doses from American outfit Moderna.

The idea was to spread the risk across a selection of different vaccines, rather than betting on any one company to hit the bullseye.

It was a strategy motivated, in part, by a fear in the early stages of the pandemic that the United States or other global powers would effectively corner the market on vaccines, securing huge pre-orders for tranches of vaccines before a coordinated European strategy had even been developed.

There was also concern among the smaller countries of Europe that Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy would go it alone through an initiative called the ‘Inclusive Vaccine Alliance’.

Set up in the early summer, the Alliance opened negotiations with AstraZeneca, eventually inking a preliminary deal in June for between 300 and 400 million doses of the potential vaccine.

Eventually, the Commission sprung into action, outlining a coordinated vaccine strategy just a few days later.

The Commission said at the time that the four Alliance countries “who started negotiations with AstraZeneca asked the Commission to take over through an agreement signed on behalf of all Member States”.

belgium-brussels-eu-u-s-relationship-speech Xinhua News Agency / PA Images Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images

After much wrangling between member states, it was agreed that the EU27 would cooperate on procurement with the Commission to coordinate the supply efforts, allowing Europe to collectively leverage its political weight within the market. Once the vaccines had been produced, they would be distributed to member states based on population.

By mid-August, the Commission signed its first ‘advance purchase agreement’ for a potential vaccine.

The prospect of European cooperation was welcomed at the time, given the negative publicity generated by German and French protectionism over personal protective equipment at the outset of the crisis.

But negative opinions about the approach are not hard to come by.

One frequently-made observation has been how long it took for the EU to secure its first vaccine purchase agreements, which may in turn have slowed down the approval process.

There was, after all, a three-month gap between the first EU vaccine deal being signed in August and the UK’s first formal agreement with AstraZeneca, which was signed in May.

Even in April last year, there was a sense that Europe was playing catch-up and that the spectre of unilateral agreements between countries and pharma companies would quickly dry up supply.

At the time, Sanofi warned the EU that its response lagged behind the rest of the world.

On 24 April last year, the company’s chief executive told reporters, “There has been a lack of coordination at a European level. It’s starting to move now but the level of pandemic preparedness is very, very low.”

It would be another two months before the Commission outlined its coordinated strategy in June.

One question raised by all of this is whether it would have been better to let individual member states come to their own arrangements with ‘Big Pharma’.

For Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher, the answer is no.

“If you have 27 EU countries all trying to outbid each other and outdo each other, countries with the bigger cheque books and political muscle could have done better than us. So that always would have been a high-risk strategy from an Irish perspective,” he says.

We’re better off to be in a group that can get economies of scale, value for money, and actually have political influence.

This would be an even bigger issue for tiny European economies like Malta or Bulgaria.

Members of the European Parliament have repeatedly hit out at the lack of transparency around the contracts between the Commission and the pharmaceutical companies.

Slamming the “culture of secrecy” within the Commission structures, Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus explained, “Access to adequate oversight in relation to the European vaccine programme so far has been worryingly limited. Up to very recently, we as MEPs could only see one of the contracts in a very redacted format in a special reading room.”

The funding discrepancy

Another argument that has reared its head in recent days is that the EU has lagged behind the UK and the US in terms of upfront funding to support research, development and the scaling up of production facilities.

Earlier this week, analysis by UK life sciences analytics company Airfinity indicates that the UK and the US could have spent roughly seven times more than the EU on this kind of activity.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Airfinity chief executive Rasmus Bech Hansen said he believes that this funding discrepancy is key to understanding the difference between the UK and EU rollouts.

There are limits to the data, he explained.

Because many of the European deals remain shrouded in secrecy, there are gaps in our knowledge and the types of funding may not be exactly comparable.

“So I think the correct way of seeing it is that it’s an indicator,” Hansen said.

But I think what the data tells us is that there has been a very different approach to this. The EU has very much treated the vaccine space as a procurement challenge; how do we buy vaccines and which ones should we buy?

By contrast, he says the UK and the US saw it as more of a “comprehensive biosecurity issue”, marshalling “cross-departmental” efforts and expertise.

“Also one of the things that has struck us for a long time, is that the individual member states didn’t do more on the vaccine front themselves — even countries with a successful life sciences industry,” Hansen said.

So what seems to be in the cases that member states said, ‘Ok, the EU takes care of that. We don’t have to do anything.’It was never meant to be like that.

Defenders of the EU strategy are quick to point out that the bloc has pumped resources into the vaccine effort.

Noelle O’Connell, chief executive of the European Movement Ireland, pointed out that some €2.1 billion has been allocated by the Commission for vaccine funding and development through a mechanism instrument called the Emergency Support Instrument.

“The Advanced Purchase Agreements signed between the Commission and six vaccine manufacturers during the summer and autumn provided money up front to fund research and production capacity,” she said.

This included an initial payment of €335 million to AstraZeneca.

“Europe probably is a little bit behind the curve in terms of investment in research and development and innovation in general,” said Billy Kelleher. “And that is something that we have to look at. But specifically relating to the vaccines, in fairness [the EU and its member states] did put money up front and forward purchase.”

Given the paucity of data and the fact that all bar one of the vaccine contracts remain under wraps, it’s difficult to reach concrete conclusions one way or the other about the adequacy of the EU’s funding.

But significant question marks remain.

As Wolfgang Munchau, head of UK-based think tank Eurointelligence, wrote recently, European officials seemed preoccupied with the price of the vaccines from the get-go.

“The EU paid 24% less for the Pfizer vaccine than the US, for example. For the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the price gap is 45%. The UK almost certainly paid a lot more,” he argued.

“It is no wonder that the manufacturers are prioritising orders on a first-come, first-serve basis, and from countries that pay the full price. The price difference is macroeconomically irrelevant. But if vaccine shortages lead to longer lockdowns, the indirect effect of that short-sighted policy will be massive.”

A ‘more robust’ regulatory process

Another criticism of the strategy is that the EU has placed itself at the back of the distribution queue because its approval of the leading vaccines came later than in other countries.

Both the UK and US have given emergency authorisation to vaccine developers, while the European Commission has required companies to apply for conditional marketing authorisation. The level of data required on efficacy and safety is similar, but emergency authorisation essentially allows an unlicensed product to be used on a temporary basis.

The conditional marketing authorisation process is similar to the one used for vaccines and medications before the pandemic, but it has been significantly sped up as the European Medicines Agency has been assessing data on a rolling basis, rather than waiting until the end of all of the developers’ trials when an application is submitted.

Developers are required to go through three trial phases:

In Phase 1, the vaccine is given to a small number of people to assess safety for human use, to confirm it generates an immune response and to test dosage levels.

In Phase 2, the vaccine is given to hundreds of people. They are monitored for any side effects – mainly the more common side effects would be picked up at this stage.

At this stage developers also collect data on the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing disease, but numbers are too small for a clear picture. A proportion of the volunteers in this phase will receive a placebo or in some cases another vaccination. This is known as a control group – it allows researchers to make comparisons between those who receive the vaccine and those who do not.

In Phase 3, the vaccine is given to thousands, or tens of thousands of volunteers. Again, there will be control groups and a proportion will receive a placebo so data from the groups can be compared. This phase gives a clearer picture of how effective the vaccine is in eliciting an immune response and the appropriate dosage.

With a large – and more diverse – pool of volunteers, this phase also aims to catch less common side effects and examine the prevalence of side effects overall.

Once the results of these clinical trials are available, reviews of efficacy, safety and manufacturing are carried out before approval by regulatory authorities.

The rolling review of data involves scientific experts from across the 27 member states, including Ireland’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA).

When asked about criticisms of the European approach, the HPRA pointed out that the period of time from a firm’s application for authorisation to the approval by the EMA has been “extremely efficient”.

Pfizer/BioNTech submitted their application to the EMA on 1 December 2020 and authorisation was recommended by the agency on 21 December. On this same day, prescribing information for healthcare workers and leaflets for members of the public were also published.

The EMA also received an application for the Modern vaccine on 1 December and on 1 January it was given the green light.

There was an even shorter timeframe of 17 days between the submission of an application to the decision today to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“In other jurisdictions, a temporary authorisation of supply has been granted in the emergency use setting. An emergency use authorisation is not a marketing authorisation and the medicine remains unlicensed,” the HPRA said in a statement to TheJournal.ie.

“An emergency use authorisation differs from a conditional marketing authorisation in the level of evidence submitted and checks required. They are specifically designed to enable temporary availability and use in emergency situations and last only as long as emergency circumstances apply.

As for all marketing authorisations, a conditional authorisation provides a controlled and robust framework, which ensures that all safety monitoring, manufacturing controls, including batch controls for vaccines, and other post-approval obligations apply in a legally binding manner and are evaluated and acted upon by the EMA’s scientific committees on a continuous basis.

“These are essential elements to ensure a high level of protection to citizens during the course of a mass vaccination campaign.”

annie lynch Annie Lynch became the first Irish person to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on 29 December.

The first vaccines were administered in the EU on 27 December, 19 days after the first vaccine in the UK and 13 days after the US rollout began.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Noelle O’Connell, CEO of European Movement Ireland, said the collaborative approach, whereby the Commission jointly purchased vaccines on behalf of all member states, likely sped up the process for the individual countries.

“Had the Commission not undertaken this action there would likely be member states that would have not yet started vaccinating their populations and national governments would be wasting time and resources bidding against one another for the limited vaccine supplies that are available,” she said.

She pointed out that while vaccinations per head of populations have been slower to date in the EU than the UK, USA or Israel, progress across the EU is more advanced than in countries like China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

MEP Billy Kelleher has questioned why a more collaborative working arrangement was not put in place across regulatory authorities.

“I felt why not just have a reciprocal collaborative, and even potentially mutual recognition, if the FDA are using the same benchmarks or even higher to approve vaccines, and then we have to go through the whole process again,” he said.

“I think that in the event of an emergency like this, the European Medicines Agency could assess one particular vaccine, let the US assess another one and the UK assess another. And they could collaboratively work on that.”

However, he said he does not believe the approach taken by the EU – a conditional marketing authorisation – had a significant impact on the timeframe compared to the UK and US emergency use authorisations.

“Emergency means that you remove any burden of risk in terms of liability afterwards on companies. Any country could do that, I mean Ireland could approve it conditionally, but you would have to procure the vaccines outside of the scope of the European Union’s agreement.

“But that still would have only meant a few weeks in the difference. The issue is we just can’t get enough vaccines.” 

Supply issues

While the European Commission is working to push manufacturers to deliver the agreed supplies quickly to member states, the management of their own stocks of doses and the implementation of their individual programmes is out of the Commission’s hands.

There has been cohesion across the EU in terms of priority groups, with a focus on healthcare workers and older people. However, some individual countries have gone out on their own with other decisions, such as additional vaccine orders or interpretation of the data provided by manufacturers.

Germany has done both of these things. The German health minister has confirmed his country signed a memorandum of understanding last September for 30 million additional doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

This agreement pre-dates the contracts signed between the companies and the European Commission but it is out of step with the theme of ‘solidarity’ the EU has been promoting with its vaccine strategy.

Germany authorities have also decided the AztraZeneca vaccine should not be used in over 65s. This is despite guidance from the EMA today which states that while there is not significant data around efficacy in this age cohort, it can be used and is likely to result in an immune response in all all age groups.

Hungary has also, independently of the EU, given preliminary approval to the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. And it gave the AztraZeneca vaccine the green light earlier this month, before EMA approval.

These types of decisions are likely to create further disparity in the speed of vaccination programmes across different EU countries and the level of vaccines administered in different age cohorts.

The German decision on AstraZeneca, for example, will speed up that country’s delivery of vaccines to younger age cohorts and this may shift its restriction policies.

Noelle O’Connell of European Movement Ireland said there are “good reasons” that member states oversee their own programmes, aside from the obvious fact that the EU does not have the legal power to administer public healthcare in member states.

Each has its own national healthcare system as well as different supply chains and logistical arrangements.

She said there are also “differing opinions and perceptions of the vaccinations across member states.

“Scepticism in France, for example, is high comparatively and national governments
are best placed to provide information and communications to reassure citizens,” she said.

The EU has vaccinated just 2.2% of its population, compared to more than 11% in the US and 7.1% in the UK.

Yes, they started vaccinating their populations slightly earlier, but the key barrier for EU countries has been a shortage of supplies.

Currently, there are three different vaccines approved by the EMA; the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna jab and now the AstraZeneca vaccine.

And there have been issues with all three – even before approval when it comes to AstraZeneca.

On 15 January Pfizer warned vaccine deliveries would be reduced temporarily while it carried out work at its manufacturing plant in Belgium to ensure it can scale up its production capacity to meet larger supplies later in the year.

Just today Moderna told Italian and French authorities that it will deliver 20-25% fewer doses than expected in February to those countries.

In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, the HSE said the Moderna delivery next week of 6,000 doses will not be impacted but it expects subsequent deliveries in February to be reduced. 

“We remain engaged with the manufacturer to understand the scale of these reductions,” it said. 

“While we can plan for different scenarios with regard to vaccine volumes and deliveries, we cannot provide certainty at this time. The projected volumes and deliveries of vaccines remain subject to change. 

“Notice for delivery can be short, so we must be in a position to respond quickly. This underlines the fluidity of the process of rolling out vaccines against evolving information, in a constantly changing landscape.”

And the expected cuts to AztraZeneca’s early supplies are now well publicised. This day last week, the firm warned supplies of its vaccines to Europe would be “lower than originally anticipated”. The company said this was due to reduced production at a manufacturing site.

Last week Irish officials this will mean there would be 300,000 fewer doses in the first three months of the year, though EU negotiations may now have reduced that shortfall. 

The cuts to supplies, particularly the Pfizer reductions, have had a clear impact on the ability of countries to successfully roll-out their vaccination programmes in the way they had initially planned.

Spain, which managed to secure early supply deals, was running out of vaccine doses this week.

Delays in shipments of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have put pressure on the country’s regional vaccination campaign.

In Madrid, officials said they would have to suspend new first doses for two weeks due to a lack of supply, so they can ensure people receive their second doses.

Catalonia’s health chief also said the region had practically finished its reserve supplies, warning that within days “the refrigerators will be empty”.

virus-outbreak-spain-nursing-home Residents at San Jeronimo nursing home, in Estella, northern Spain, receive their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. AP / PA Images AP / PA Images / PA Images

The southern Andalucia region also temporarily halted its programme due to the supply shortage.

The government sent in emergency supplies earlier this week so the campaign could resume.

Some regions said they had only received half their expected supply and had only managed to keep going using their strategic reserves.

In Ireland, deliveries of more than 40,000 doses should be arriving into the country every week by now – this week the figure is  32,700.

The reduced deliveries from Pfizer mean the roll-out of the vaccine to those aged over 70 will be delayed as the HSE is still trying to work its way through residents at longterm care facilities and frontline healthcare workers.

Today Professor Brian MacCraith, head of the national vaccination taskforce, said Ireland is “sticking to the principle of administering vaccines as soon as they arrive”.

“We’re right to the edge of the supply that’s available. There are no vaccines resting in the fridges or freezers in any given week.”

Uncertainties around deliveries make it significantly more difficult to plan vaccinations on this two-dose schedule.

Next week there will be no first doses administered in Ireland as the supply is needed to ensure those who received a first dose already get their second dose within the required 28-day timeframe.

HSE

EU officials have come out swinging this week, telling AstraZeneca that it will be held to its contractual commitments. 

The Commission’s President, Ursula von der Leyen said this week that companies “must deliver”.

“They must honour their obligations. And this is why we will set up a vaccine export transparency mechanism,” she added. “Europe is determined to contribute to this global common good, but it also means business.”

With news of supply issues coming from vaccine manufacturers on a now weekly basis and some member states already branching out on their own, the European Commission will be under increasing pressure from member states to prove the worth of its collective approach.

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:00 PM

    That article must win the award for the longest article ever on the Journal.

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    Mute PF
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:28 PM

    @The Firestarter: reads like an EU bureaucratic pres release.

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    Mute ConorH
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:30 PM

    @The Firestarter: thought the same!

    How difficult is it to just ration what they have across front line and elderly. Then reserves for those that catch it. Maybe too logical…

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    Mute Jarlath Coady
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:18 PM

    @The Firestarter: great article. Really well-researched.

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    Mute John Madden
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:26 PM

    @ConorH: vaccines do not help “those who catch it.”

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    Mute indh2004
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    Jan 29th 2021, 6:51 PM

    EU created a mess but quick to deflect by blaming others…best effort

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    Mute kevin mc cormack
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    Jan 29th 2021, 6:55 PM

    Same thing happened with the financial crash.
    the EU where still pushing up interest rates while the world crumbled around us, always to slow to react

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    Mute Valthebear
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    Jan 29th 2021, 6:42 PM

    Another fine EU mess…

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    Mute Brian Heffernan
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:07 PM

    The EU is like that person that keeps hitting the snooze button and then realize they’re late.

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    Mute Jjohn Cconway
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:06 PM

    Very good article. The word union, in the European context, should be applied very loosely!

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    Mute Da Dell
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:16 PM

    Im suprised the journal even reported this, if someone posted this as a comment they would delete it.

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    Mute Richard Cronin
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:23 PM

    @Da Dell: in all honesty it’s pretty hard to cover up

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    Mute larry duff
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    Jan 29th 2021, 6:58 PM

    Ha ha good old eu and people take the *iss out of the uk

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    Mute Conor Flood
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:18 PM

    @larry duff: the Uk death and contagion figures are amongst the top five in the world . How does this make them a success at any level ? Too little far too late .

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:57 PM

    @larry duff: I don’t take the piss.

    I feel sorry for the 100k people gone due to their disasterous handling

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    Mute Da Dell
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:06 PM

    @Conor Flood: Go check the percetages per population of all the EU countries, the UK and the US .. also look at the percentages of those who died from contracting it . I cant put those figures here cause the journal will delete them . there is very little difference % wise.

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    Mute Da Dell
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:14 PM

    @Barry Somers: And what would the numbers be in Ireland if a similar population of around 68 million ? ..
    Not many countries can claim to be much better than others ..

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    Mute Gary Garden
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    Jan 30th 2021, 1:02 AM

    @Da Dell: Pro rata per head of population the UK death rate is 333% higher than Ireland. Facts

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    Mute Mick Tobin
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:08 PM

    It seems as though AstraZeneca signed two fundamentally incompatible contracts with the UK and the EU, since the – as yet unpublished and more expensive – UK contract supposedly has a priority clause for the UK population. That would have been fine from AZ’s perspective in the absence of production problems, but they seem to have badly miscalculated and here we are with a tug-of-war between the EU and the UK before the ink is dry on the Brexit finalisation agreement.

    Meanwhile the European Commission is scrambling to expose AstraZeneca’s failings in order to cover up their own sluggishness, and shield them (somewhat) from the inevitable political fallout.

    Because the consequences could be significant. Beside the previously impossible feat of inadvertedly uniting Remainers and Leavers, German paper Die Zeit is already describing the AstraZeneca affair as the best advert for Brexit.

    If things go beyond the current state of affairs because of faster UK vaccination rates, and people in the EU watch Britain opening up while they’re still in lockdowns, the political rammifications could be significant. The narrative for many could become one of ‘the EU can’t protect our lives and livihoods in times of crisis’.

    I get the European Commission’s focus on proper procedures, and ‘vaccine unity’ for the EU market, but on the flipside it seems to be getting outmanouvered by a more agile UK. Ultimately AstraZeneca’s business practises may be at fault here, but the (geo)political consequences could potentially go far beyond that of a badly behaving pharmaceutical company.

    I expect the European Parliament to launch an inquiry, which may have as its ultimate outcome the dismissal of the European Commission. This sort of thing should not be allowed to happen without serious consequences.

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:18 PM

    @Mick Tobin:
    The AZ vaccine, unlike Pfizer’s, is “not for profit”. So there is absolutely no evidence that the UK is paying more. That is just fake news put out by the EU Commission to paint the Brits as the villains of the EU’s fiasco. Also the AZ supply chain in the UK was built from scratch, at the UK taxpayers expense, to produce vaccines for the UK and not the EU.
    As for the other vaccines, except J&J’s, everybody else is paying more than the EU, because while the EU was haggling to achieve “best value”, every other country was putting it’s citizens welfare before the pennies saved.

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    Mute Fen
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    Jan 30th 2021, 9:02 PM

    @Mark Murray: They are not painting the brits as anything. AZ signed a contract to allow EU have access to UK factories. When time came for access they said “no”, when asked why said “UK comes first”, the contract did not say “contractually reasonable efforts”, it said “best efforts”, which means AZ is contractually obliged to move heaven and earth to help the EU.

    If the UK loves its citizens so much and puts their welfare first, why do they have the highest death rate in Europe? Why did they dump most of their money into a vaccine that turns out is 50-60%? Why do they have to buy 90%+ vaccines from the EU? Why didn’t they tell AZ not to allow anyone access to the factories they paid for? AZ could have said in its contract “no access to uk factories till 1st june”. UK could have stopped this dispute before it happened, and they didnt now risk a trade war? Restricted access to better vaccines?

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    Mute Tomo
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    Feb 1st 2021, 12:00 AM

    @Fen: Great points.

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:03 PM

    @Sandra Sally:
    Hedging their bets against failure or delay of any number of vaccines, such as French vaccines. They also built the supply chain from the ground up for AZ and Novavax production and are self sufficient in supply. They are not dependent on EU as we are.
    They did not waste time haggling over whether to order the same amount of non existent French vaccines as German vaccines, or over price.
    A royal EU screw up.

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    Mute John Joseph Martin
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:38 PM

    We should leave the EU before it falls apart.

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    Mute Jarlath Coady
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:22 PM

    @John Joseph Martin: a storm in a teacup over vaccine distribution isn’t exactly a fundamental failure. They made some judgements that didn’t work out. They just need to stop the finger pointing.

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    Mute Tomo
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    Feb 1st 2021, 12:01 AM

    @John Joseph Martin: Our services based economy would collapse if we left the EU. It’s kinda cute that Irish people think we’re this wealthy of our own merit.

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    Mute Sara Davis
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:36 PM

    The totally incompetent EU bureaucracy has now invoked article 16 of the Northern Ireland Agreement so they have just created a hard border on the island of Ireland. How can anyone think the EU has any redirect for Ireland?

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    Mute Chris Day
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    Jan 29th 2021, 11:37 PM

    @Sara Davis: source?

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    Mute Den Sullivan
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:26 PM

    EU red tape will always find a way mess up

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    Mute Mattress Dick
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:22 PM

    Goodbye 2021

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    Mute G. GAB-@politicalcombat
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    Jan 29th 2021, 6:59 PM

    Northern Ireland

    First dose: 196,131
    Second dose: 24,070

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:54 PM

    @G. GAB-@politicalcombat:
    They have nearly 12% of population vaccinated. We have less than 3%.

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    Mute Gerry Ryan
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:39 PM

    @Mark Murray: Theres an estimate that they’ve had over 600 more deaths in proportion to their population than we have here in the 26.
    They’re in a rush like their master race the Brits to try to stem the devastating death rate caused by their own incompetence. That’s why they’ve put the screws on Astra Zeneca and now it’s in the open the Company can expect to be released from the torture chamber any day.

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:07 PM

    @Gerry Ryan:
    The pandemic is not over yet Gerry. Come back in a couple of months and give the numbers when all of NI are vaccinated and we are not. When they are all in the pub and we’re locked down tight.

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    Mute Robert Preston
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    Jan 29th 2021, 11:10 PM

    @Gerry Ryan: EU messed up

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    Mute Lager Lout
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    Jan 30th 2021, 10:16 AM

    @Mark Murray: The pub? Is that all you care about. Will the pandemic be over for you when you’re down the pub guzzling pints?

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    Mute Tim Pot
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    Jan 30th 2021, 10:31 AM

    @Mark Murray:

    NI have vaccinated 196,131 since December 8th
    ROI have vaccinated 147,700 since December 29th

    You make it sound a total disaster.

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 30th 2021, 12:30 PM

    @Tim Pot:
    What is the population of ROI in proportion to NI?

    Relative to NI, it is.

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 30th 2021, 12:36 PM

    @Lager Lout: I don’t drink and have not been in a pub for years, except for a few occasional retirement or leaving parties. I used pub for illustration, I could easily have said football match, cinema, restaurant, house party, family gathering, or any other social gathering that you care to think of. Needless to say, when they are enjoying any or all of these, we will not.

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    Mute Mark Murray
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    Jan 30th 2021, 1:05 PM

    @Tim Pot: Total number of vaccination doses administered per 100 people in the total population.
    NI 11.63; ROI 3.27;
    UK 12.33; EU 2.61;
    SOURCE: OurWorldInData

    Speaks for itself.

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    Mute John Macken
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:54 PM

    Took forever to scroll down to the comments

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    Mute Sandra Sally
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:47 PM

    How come the UK have ordered over 600 million vaccine with a population of 68 million??

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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:19 PM

    @Sandra Sally: In case some of them aren’t up to scratch. Sanofi pulled the plug on their vaccine this week resulting in the loss of 80m doses. 600m doses is roughly 300m people so less than 5 X their population.

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    Mute John Kelly
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    Jan 29th 2021, 7:02 PM

    How many vaccines do we get per week from Moderna. Was it only 6000 doses?

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    Mute Gerard
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    Jan 29th 2021, 10:25 PM

    The issue is in supply. As the article (kind of) makes clear, “going it alone” wouldn’t have had a big effect on supply, it would’ve just meant all of Europe was in a bidding war with itself.

    The dispute with the UK would pale in comparison to that. And Ireland would have been unlikely to come out on top there.

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    Mute Brian Nunan
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    Jan 30th 2021, 12:01 AM

    @Gerard: absolutely right- like it or lump it we are in the halfpenny place in terms of prioritisation. We either go with Ezu or UK. No doubt UK has won this little battle. But – Personally I’d prefer to suffer the few weeks extra. No stars here for EU and its associated beaurocrasy. All very unchartered waters but these are uncertain times and we simply have to accept that. Stay cool it has been a year and a few more weeks are needed.

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    Mute Oretani Wildlife
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    Jan 29th 2021, 8:44 PM

    Has anyone seriously got enough time to read all this for pleasure?

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    Mute Jarlath Coady
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    Jan 29th 2021, 9:20 PM

    @Oretani Wildlife: yup

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    Mute place pages
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    Jan 31st 2021, 1:35 AM

    @Oretani Wildlife: nah read 15 seconds then spent 5 minutes arguing in the comments

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    Mute IP.Man
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    Jan 29th 2021, 11:44 PM

    As I said in another commend, I expect a vaccination as an ordinary guy in 2023. ;)

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    Mute Ní neart go cur le chéile.
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    Jan 30th 2021, 12:02 AM

    Read entire article and comments, 20 mins lol
    Most developed countries are in EU, no EU vaccines

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    Mute WreckDefier
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    Jan 29th 2021, 10:39 PM

    Let me see if I can find something in the freezer

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    Mute place pages
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    Jan 31st 2021, 1:33 AM

    @WreckDefier: I’ve got some vegetarian sausage rolls haven’t seen the light of day since lockdown 1

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    Mute place pages
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    Jan 31st 2021, 1:32 AM

    The smell of want off some of these opportunists. Let’s all remember the EU are trying to protect their citizens. Something fishy about AZ – UK deal. The EU makes 1 mistake and the world are all over them yet we’ve seen much much worse from UK and USA in last year. Everyone makes mistakes. We’re lucky we have enough clout that 1 phone call fixed it

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    Mute Fen
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    Jan 30th 2021, 8:54 PM

    3 week lockdown and it would be gone. Most of the vaccines are not as good as a healthy persons immune system. EU does not want to look like it is doing nothing so throws money everywhere, even at “game changing” vaccines with 50-60%.

    Simple fact is, UK has double the people vaccinated but has the highest death rate yet again in Europe.

    Although EU invested in every vaccine going, and it seeme hectic, they are gonna end up with a lower death rate than UK and USA. There is no easily makeable vaccine with 95% so expect them to keep shooting money like a shotgun and trying everything else.

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