alioth wrote:
Except that it hasn’t – the UK’s current lockdown is causing a record decrease in the rate of new cases (about twice the rate of decrease compared to November’s lockdown).
Yes, but at what cost? The cost is replacing one variant that already was insanely infectious with one that is 70% more infectious. Timing is of the issue here.
Peter wrote:
Presumably if the UK was embargoed by Brussels it could get the AZ vaccine from AZ’s US factories?
I believe AZ production is mostly, if not all, in the UK.
The threat from the EU (well, actually from a particularly irate French MEP who was on Radio 4 this morning – I wish the interviewer had asked her about Sanofi) apparently relates to Pfizer exports from the factory in Belgium.
All it boils down to is that AZ has had to say (for whatever reason) that the EU won’t get quite as much delivered quite as quickly as it had hoped for. Pfizer (again for whatever reasons) has told the EU much the same, but managed to avoid such overt threats over the issue.
Peter wrote:
This is interestingApparently some religions believe the vaccine contains unacceptable substances or is some vector for manipulating them.
Both the BBC and the Guardian have focused heavily on this in recent days.
I have to say that I feel, quite strongly, that it is not the role nor the responsibility of government to educate the superstitious. This is largely a problem that the UK has imported in the last few decades, and any hopes that it might die out over a few generations are scuppered by the fact that we still have quite a lot of religious-based schooling.
We also have a high rate of what one might call a total avoidance of any form of schooling or any education at all, in those areas. In fact a lot of people don’t “get out” at all, and I don’t mean getting off their Ipad 
Pfizer is being threatened less presumably because their factory is in Belgium and Brussels feels it needs its product more. It can also get a better “handle” on a factory in Belgium. Surveillance and tracking of the trucks leaving its factory gate must be easy
Graham wrote:
Peter wrote: This is interesting Apparently some religions believe the vaccine contains unacceptable substances or is some vector for manipulating them.Both the BBC and the Guardian have focused heavily on this in recent days.
I have to say that I feel, quite strongly, that it is not the role nor the responsibility of government to educate the superstitious. This is largely a problem that the UK has imported in the last few decades, and any hopes that it might die out over a few generations are scuppered by the fact that we still have quite a lot of religious-based schooling.
I suppose the Government should message, but perhaps not waste inordinate effort. After all isnt the job of the Government to inform and counter inaccurate information regardless, but I agree there are limits as to the effort they put into this, especially as probably the numbers involved do not actually threaten the concept of her immunity. If they did threaten herd immunity then I am afraid I think they would need to put a lot more effort in, and indeed as we are seeing is proving to be the case in France, but it is in the nations interest that enough people are vaccinated.
alioth wrote:
An interesting article on how the Pfizer vaccine works:https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/reverse-engineering-source-code-of-the-biontech-pfizer-vaccine/
Thank you for that. A really interesting read.
Peter wrote:
dp – that graph is from the “respected” and “nowadays quite champagne socialist liberal” Financial Times
It wasn’t the graph that I was getting at! It was your “tabloid headline” style interpretation of it!
Pfizer is being threatened less presumably because their factory is in Belgium and Brussels feels it needs its product more.
Well, it was reported here, that the Pfizer delay wasn’t near as much as originally expected. There was indeed a big huff about it initially, but within a few days it was confirmed that it was just a reduced shipment for 1 week, then back to normal shipment. While the Oxford AZ one is 60% down until Q3.
The EU bet big on the Oxford/AZ vaccine and will be badly affected by this. They hadn’t bet so big on Pfizer.
Having said that, the EMA has been a disgrace in how slow they have been in checking and approving the vaccines. They probably have only themselves to blame.
Peter wrote:
Apparently some religions believe the vaccine contains unacceptable substances
Yes, especially Dihydrogenmonoxide. That substance is a killer – I would even got as far as this substance is one of the top killers globally. About 50-60 million people die by this every single year! Dihydrogenmonoxide is a so common cause of death, that most languages even have a special words for “dying by Dehydrogenmonoxide”
And this thing is in the vaccine – what does the government do? They are trying to actively keeping us away from the truth! But we know better!
Graham wrote:
I have to say that I feel, quite strongly, that it is not the role nor the responsibility of government to educate the superstitious.
I feel quite strongly that if the superstition includes killing a child a day to fulfill the unbearable commandments of the Invisible pink unicorn, it is the role and responsibility of the government to “educate” them not to do that.
Did someone mention in this thread already, that vaccination is primarily for the society (e.g. the others) and only secondarily for the individual?
dublinpilot wrote:
Well, it was reported here, that the Pfizer delay wasn’t near as much as originally expected. There was indeed a big huff about it initially, but within a few days it was confirmed that it was just a reduced shipment for 1 week, then back to normal shipment. While the Oxford AZ one is 60% down until Q3.The EU bet big on the Oxford/AZ vaccine and will be badly affected by this. They hadn’t bet so big on Pfizer.
Having said that, the EMA has been a disgrace in how slow they have been in checking and approving the vaccines. They probably have only themselves to blame.
Well, perhaps something similar will turn out to the be the case with AZ. It might be that they under-promise and over-deliver – a standard business tactic.
If the EU is concerned with where it laid its bets then the issue is Sanofi, not AZ. But of course they can make a lot of noise about AZ because it means they can bash an outsider, but properly examining the Sanofi issue would sow massive division within the bloc.
As I alluded to on a more personal level, you have to assess and manage your risk. There is a risk in betting on a product from a country that you have just spent two years trying to ensure has less prosperity going forward than it used to have.
If someone has something you want, try being nice to them.
My colleagues in Regulatory Affairs will tell you that the EMA has been a bit of a shambles on approval timelines ever since it left London. It seems a good proportion of the competent staff didn’t want to move to the continent and elected to return to industry.
