Covid vaccination program - Page 3

Interesting that you try and downplay the brilliant success of the UK vaccination program and excuse the EU incompetence, but that's  not surprising considering you can't post without your political persuasion shining through . At 12% of GDP and 14% of total employment tourism is hugely important to Spain, none more so than the UK inbound tourism at a quarter of total tourism. On 2018 figures this was worth 90 billion Euro's to Spain, and employs 2.6 million people, although you quote the car industry and Pharmaceuticals as a higher % of GDP, they employ a fifth of what tourism does, and therefore i would argue, for the Country as a whole it is vital that normality is returned asap.   

Hi Balmer9,

I don't see how I've 'downplayed' the success of the UK's vaccine programme by saying, "There's no doubt that the UK is doing a good job of their vaccine programme"?  And I don't see that I excused 'EU incompetence' when I said, "There's also much concern with the state of the EU's vaccination programme"?

But offering your opinion with no evidence is clearly something you feel you have the right to do.  As for your comment that I "can't post without your political persuasion shining through", I'm afraid that's just another of your unvalidated opinions.

Regards,

Kim

Kimmy11. Your statement that " It appears that AztraZeneca over-committed themselves . . . when latterly committing to the EU's requirements",  is of course entirely true. However the part in the middle of this sentence " ". . . not taking account of their earlier commitment to the UK" is debateable. The UK had committed to ordering the vaccine more than three months ago. AstraZeneca had to ramp up production of the vaccine in their UK facilities to meet the order, which they did and in the process ironed out logistical difficulties during that time. The contract says that they will use "best efforts" to meet the contractual amounts ordered by the EU. They have attempted to ramp up production at their european sites but have encountered logisitical problems which needed addressed. However the EU apparently expected the delivery of the vaccines as soon as it passed their regulatory process which occurred on Friday. I fail to see how AstraZeneca could anticipate when this process could be completed or how it would make commercial sense to store millions of doses of the vaccine while waiting to see if the EU would or would not approve its use.

I agree, Care4, if the EU felt the need to sue another party, I'd suggest it should have been their own lawyers, not AstraZeneca.

On the upside, promising news from Oxford University yesterday that the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine appears to be improved by the 12-week, rather than 3-week, gap between doses.  I appreciate that their data still requires peer review, but hopefully it will be proved to be the case.

However, I'm bemused by Matt Hancock's assertion yesterday that this vindicates the UK government's decision to delay the timeframe for administering the second dose, as it takes no account of the millions of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines originally administered, where the 12-week delay is not supported by the manufacturer.  It leaves the highest priority groups of the UK's population with no assurance that they will have the maximum protection they were expecting to receive from the vaccine.

Stay safe,

Kim

Kimmy11 the UK have 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on order and expect all to be delivered by end March. They have ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Interestingly even though these were approved and the first 10 million were due to be delivered at the end of November there were no histrionics, no spitting out of dummies or throwing toys out of the pram when they were not delivered. Just an acceptance that the manufactureres faced massive logistical problems beyond their control. There is a massive worldwide shortage of vaccine bottle and the special caps for them. These are only two of seven vaccines the UK government have contracted for. Another from Scotland gained approval and at the beginning of the week 50 million were on order bringing the total so far, on order to around 500 million doses with 190 million expected to be delivered by end March.

Thanks Care4, I'm aware of what the UK has ordered (not the same as delivered, of course), but I don't see how it's relevant to my concern about a 12-week gap, versus the recommended 3-week gap, between doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech?

Kind regards,

Kim

This link may be of help https://www.wionews.com/india-news/hungary-becomes-first-country-in-eu-to-approve-chinese-vaccine-sinopharm-as-europe-grapples-with-virus-360101

It does claim Spain has suspended the vaccination programme due to the Pfizer source having dried up.

Brilliant post Kimmy. I'm pleased that the UK vaccination programme is going well but like you, understand that I won't be travelling to Spain until there's widespread vaccination there too, not driven by Spain's reluctance to have tourists but by the UKs understandable public health protectionism as demonstrated by tightening quarantine controls. However I think some of the gloomy predictions on vaccination roll out in Spain is unneccesarily pessimistic. Yes there is an unseemly and slightly nationalistic scramble to vaccinate at the moment but that will settle during the next few months. Supply will not be a problem as all the providers tool up and the countries that are lagging behind will ramp up their programmes. Why would they not since it's an economic lifeline if nothing else.

Kimmy11. sorry I should have expanded on the post. The reason for showing the amount of vaccines ordered was to show there has been a differing approach to the time scale of second doses and the effect this will have on the programme. It has been suggested in the UK press that studies have shown that a longer period between jabs acutally helps in the production of anti-bodies in the AstraZeneca vaccine. There has been no such evidence advanced in the case of the Pfizer vaccine. It may not be a comfort to those on the Pfizer vaccine but should be to those on the AstraZeneca vaccine which makes up considerably more of the stock than Pifzer. Incidently the Valneva vaccine, of which the UK government has in a pre-order for 190 million doses, is manufactured in Scotland for the French company. The EU were only in discussions with the company in January for a reported 60 million doses.

hi Dodster,

 Definition of Unseemly -  not polite or suitable for a particular situation

Can you explain what you mean when you say "Yes there is an unseemly and slightly nationalistic scramble to vaccinate at the moment but that will settle during the next few months."

Are you talking about vaccination efforts in general or any one country in particular?

Aitch