Sigh - and again ... eu threatens to block vaccine to the uk and others who got their finger out

[ZT]

just to reassure you my dear, i read and cherished every word and will hold it dear to my heart.

He will wrap it in his best flag - one side is red, the other conversely is blue with gold stars.

 

[zouzounaki]

I read that as "i don’t either. but it is how the world works. so it seems we should just shut up and accept it, so they can continue to make lots of money"

but the uk isn’t going to stop participating in international trade because it’s left the eu. instead it’s going to swap cows etc. with other countries much further away.

 

[zouzounaki]

He will wrap it in his best flag - one side is red, the other conversely is blue with gold stars.

you know red flags and blue ones with gold stars aren’t compatible.

 

[Simon G]

Just eat your delicious angus beef and stop worrying about it.

.. you don't want to be swapping that for eastern European horse chunks.

 

[Crewella]

you know red flags and blue ones with gold stars aren’t compatible.

Calm down dear, it's not a fashion statement!

 

[zouzounaki]

Just eat your delicious angus beef and stop worrying about it.

.. you don't want to be swapping that for eastern European horse chunks.

i’m not worrying about it. i’m not even worrying about vaccines either.

 

[Simon G]

i’m not worrying about it. i’m not even worrying about vaccines either.

good, that's the attitude....

 

[Leni]

What I also find interesting is that nobody seemed interested ............... and (as usual) nobody will discuss the points raised ................ just argue the politics ..............

I read it, it’s an interesting contrast to read a pro-EU slant.

I think, for me, it boils down to the AZ contracts. There is the inference that the U.K. has been greedy, or had more than our ‘fair’ share. I think if you look at anywhere in world where they have vaccines - Israel, the USA, Russia, China, while they may have contributed to the Covax scheme, they’re looking after their own people first. That’s what governments are elected to do, our gov are no different in that. It’s not fair that people in poorer countries will continue to die, while people in richer countries are offered a vaccine, but the world’s not a fucking fair place and never has been.

The EU had to get vaccines for 27 (?) countries - they should have been on the ball and in ‘crisis’ mode much faster. That’s how I see it: they backed a French vaccine that got nowhere, and didn’t order enough of the others imo.

The point he raised about the EU having signed a contract with AZ a day before the U.K. I have no idea what the truth of that is. I think it is very telling that the CEO of AZ actually made a public statement though. Think about that. For him to have spoken out in the media in response to EU criticisms..... that’s not something done lightly. AZ will have had those contracts checked by the best experts in contract law in the world before he did that. That tells me that if this ever got near a courtroom, every single ‘i’ is dotted and ‘t’ is crossed and AZ know it.

 

[zouzounaki]

were we not strong arming india for vaccine doses that were meant to be for developing countries?

there is definitely more to all this than we are hearing about, i think.

 

[Crewella]

I read it, it’s an interesting contrast to read a pro-EU slant.

I think, for me, it boils down to the AZ contracts. There is the inference that the U.K. has been greedy, or had more than our ‘fair’ share. I think if you look at anywhere in world where they have vaccines - Israel, the USA, Russia, China, while they may have contributed to the Covax scheme, they’re looking after their own people first. That’s what governments are elected to do, our gov are no different in that. It’s not fair that people in poorer countries will continue to die, while people in richer countries are offered a vaccine, but the world’s not a fucking fair place and never has been.

The EU had to get vaccines for 27 (?) countries - they should have been on the ball and in ‘crisis’ mode much faster. That’s how I see it: they backed a French vaccine that got nowhere, and didn’t order enough of the others imo.

The point he raised about the EU having signed a contract with AZ a day before the U.K. I have no idea what the truth of that is. I think it is very telling that the CEO of AZ actually made a public statement though. Think about that. For him to have spoken out in the media in response to EU criticisms..... that’s not something done lightly. AZ will have had those contracts checked by the best experts in contract law in the world before he did that. That tells me that if this ever got near a courtroom, every single ‘i’ is dotted and ‘t’ is crossed and AZ know it.

There was this a few weeks back, it does give a link to a copy of the contracts (redacted). If you're interested.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/17/europe/uk-astrazeneca-vaccine-contract-details-intl/index.html

I think it's also easy for us (over here) to conflate individual EU member states' behaviour with the whole. Countries like France first saying AZ wasn't effective in the over 65s, then suspending it, then saying it should be reserved for the over 55s (WTAF!!) just muddies the water further.