Search found 589 matches

by philg
23 Apr 2021, 8:26am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

francovendee wrote: 23 Apr 2021, 7:26am I keep hearing on here that France has huge stocks of unused AZ vaccine, total tosh!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56483766
Is the EU running out of AstraZeneca doses?
No - in fact, EU countries have been reporting hundreds of thousands of unused doses because of a drop in public confidence in the jab.
.............
France has used53% and Germany 68% of the AstraZeneca jabs they have received, according to the latest figures European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The Netherlands has used only 44% of its supply.
Maybe hearsay isn't always wrong?
by philg
22 Apr 2021, 6:03pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

Jdsk wrote: 22 Apr 2021, 5:52pm
The current European Commission contracts:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-tra ... ropeans_en

Jonathan
Yes, but from the same source
Accelerating the delivery of vaccines

On 14 April, the European Commission reached an agreement with BioNTech-Pfizer to speed up the delivery of vaccines. 50 million additional doses, initially foreseen for the fourth quarter of 2021, will be delivered in the second quarter, starting in April. To prepare for the future, the Commission also announced it was entering into a negotiation with BioNTech-Pfizer for a third contract that would foresee the delivery of 1.8 billion doses of vaccine over the period of 2021 to 2023.
Given that neither of the 2 'in development' efforts may ever see production phase, and AZ probably won't deliver their stated number, it would seem to me the assertion above about a 'monopoly' is not inaccurate.

Lucky Pfizer/Biontech is a part-German company :twisted:
by philg
22 Apr 2021, 5:46pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

mjr wrote: 22 Apr 2021, 5:27pm .................. I don't think Pfizer-BioNTech have the stranglehold suggested.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-prep ... hortfalls/
EU countries also discussed on Wednesday contracts for more EU vaccines, following the Commission’s announcement last week that the EU secured 1.8 billion BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines through 2023. Some ambassadors worried that the EU essentially is giving Pfizer a “monopoly,” and said the EU needs to have a broad portfolio of vaccines, according to a diplomat. There was also some support for extending the contract with Johnson & Johnson, but this has not yet been confirmed by the Commission.
In the same article
In any event, the chances of any more contracts with AstraZeneca look increasingly dim. The same Commission spokesperson stated that the deadline for the EU to exercise its option to sign a contract for another 100 million doses had expired and would therefore be void.
by philg
22 Apr 2021, 2:59pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

Guardian today
EU starts legal case against AstraZeneca over vaccine delays
The European commission has initiated a legal case against AstraZeneca over its “complete failure” to meet delivery and contractual agreements for its vaccine, Ireland’s health minister Stephen Donnelly has said. See earlier post for more details.
So EU wants to sue AstraZeneca for not supplying a vaccine the EU doesn't want, which Macron says doesn't work and of which the EU already has huge stockpiles which haven't been used?

Reported elsewhere that the EU are considering not using AZ for future vaccine contracts - well that should give them good leverage in price negotiations with Pfizer then :roll:
by philg
15 Apr 2021, 9:44am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Breaking International Law
Replies: 378
Views: 22716

Re: Breaking International Law

The UK and Ireland should broker a bilateral deal to replace the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol, a former senior Irish diplomat has claimed, as he accused Dublin of being too close to the EU.

Ray Bassett, who previously served as Ireland's ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas said he believed the new post-Brexit trading arrangements were fuelling “such a disillusionment” among unionists and should be overhauled.

Mr Bassett, who also served as joint secretary to the British-Irish intergovernmental conference, told The Telegraph's Planet Normal podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above, that the implementation of the protocol had been "very heavy handed" and appeared to have "destroyed" good will in Northern Ireland.
by philg
1 Apr 2021, 7:21pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Capitalism to thank for the Vaccine program
Replies: 30
Views: 990

Re: Capitalism to thank for the Vaccine program

mjr wrote:I am surprised my MP isn't asking questions about those flags, flown limp (a sign of disrespect) with their bottoms below head height (a sign of disrespect, that you consider yourself of equal status to it, rather living under it) and on the speaker's left (a sign of... you get the idea)

April 1st? very good :lol:
by philg
30 Mar 2021, 1:22pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

kwackers wrote:I'm merely paraphrasing what I see and hear out there in the wide world.

I remember the wide world; just - lucky you if you're getting there.

Unless you mean the internet?
Not sure why but Dr. Who 'Blink' scene flashed into my head

<SALLY
When you say you and the guys,
you mean the internet, don't you?
LARRY
How do you know?
SALLY
Spooky, isn't it?>

:D
by philg
30 Mar 2021, 10:08am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

Jdsk wrote:
philg wrote:And still might be reading the 'scientific press' - hence the necessity (must it keep being spelt out?) of widespread vaccinations to reduce transmission and slow the mutations, or if necessary make isolating future nasty strains easier.

And of behaviour that reduces transmission.

I'm very concerned about over-relaxation of behaviour. Ministers' statements haven't been as disastrous as last year but could be enormously better.

Jonathan

Agreed but I think lockdowns are reaching the end of the road, societal and political so mask wearing, social distancing and the rest must (IMHO) be supplemented by the vaccines.

And should the worst happen, then it helps to have a society already accepting of the idea (c.f. France atm)
by philg
30 Mar 2021, 9:56am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

Jdsk wrote:All of the approved vaccines are effective and safe.

Against known variants, so far

This could have been very different.

And still might be reading the 'scientific press' - hence the necessity (must it keep being spelt out?) of widespread vaccinations to reduce transmission and slow the mutations, or if necessary make isolating future nasty strains easier.

Hopefully it will go the way of the cold virus and the dominant strains will be annoying but relatively harmless, but there are no guarantees.
by philg
30 Mar 2021, 8:31am
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Who's had the vaccine?
Replies: 1420
Views: 56669

Re: Who's had the vaccine?

AstraZeneca vaccine - was it really worth it?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56570364

In other news
Apparently HMG have signed GSK to bottle the 60M Novavax vials instead of the planned Germany in order to 'safeguard' UK supplies.
The processing has become available as it was earmarked for the French Sanofi vaccine, which has yet to prove effective

Got to (guiltily) love the irony
by philg
28 Mar 2021, 3:31pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Scotland - do you predict that it will be an independent administrative political entity within 10 years?
Replies: 856
Views: 51741

Re: Scotland - do you predict that it will be independent administrative political entity within 10 years?

Jdsk wrote:
philg wrote:Population 20/27(>28)

What data are you using for that, please?

https://www.worldometers.info/populatio ... opulation/

1st line on Google search (Eurostat)
Scotland/Population
5.454 million (2019)
by philg
28 Mar 2021, 3:08pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: Scotland - do you predict that it will be an independent administrative political entity within 10 years?
Replies: 856
Views: 51741

Re: Scotland - do you predict that it will be independent administrative political entity within 10 years?

Jdsk wrote:There is no evidence that Spain would veto accession. I don't think that any Spanish government has ever said that it would, and several Ministers have said that it wouldn't.

https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-c ... -minister/
And one has been fired for their presumption!
https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-f ... ip-letter/

Jdsk wrote:IIRC Scotland as a Member State would be around the middle in both population and GDP per capita. All data welcome, but I don't expect anyone to show it being particularly unusual.

Population 20/27(>28)
GDP per capita difficult to assess for an independent nation, but currently it would replace UK in 15th spot.
by philg
28 Mar 2021, 2:40pm
Forum: The Tea Shop
Topic: I don't like living in England....
Replies: 2010
Views: 74969

Re: I don't like living in England....

Probably a subject for a separate topic, but could someone, preferably from Scotland, explain what they expect to happen if / when they are free of the UK?

Rejoin the EU? - Seems to me slightly illogical to want to lose a large minority voice in the UK to become a fairly insignificant cog there, with a population above Ireland and a bit less than Slovakia?

Do they think that Spain won't veto their application due to their own acute concerns with Catalunya?