Here we go!

[Pearced]

Hoarding, LOL.

Not my words. I guess you didn't read that article. I know it doesn't fit your message though. Here is another: https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/a-figh...gly-truth-about-vaccine-nationalism-1.5288964 and another
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-vaccines-uk-doses-world-b1798362.html
and another
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/12/perspectives/vaccine-hoarding-eu-uk-africa/index.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/25/hoarding-covid-vaccines-could-cost-wealthy-countries-45tn
and this one:

All rich countries are at fault but the Tory UK is the worst. LOL in your comfortable little bubble my Boris worshipping friend.

 

[radfordinlondon]

**Paging Thomas Kielinger**

Trust levels have been decling for years across Europe but in the uk, last time i looked, people trusted their cereal brand more than their politicians. Politicians were just below journalists. I think people have broadly got it right.

 

[Pearced]

Laugh away stretts: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19062715.letters-uk-ashamed-grabbing-hoarding-vaccines/
Here is an extract in case you don't have the attention span for the full thing:
"International bodies like WHO and the UN keep trying to warn the UK Government that until the whole world is vaccinated, no-one is safe. But it does not listen: its priority seems to be propaganda in the name of political survival. These politicians still chant "world-beating" . They don't seem to realise that, on their present course, they are indeed "beating the world" – confounding all valiant international efforts to make vaccines work the only way they can: by protecting everyone.

Norway is donating vaccines to poorer countries; in contrast, UK behaviour, mired in hoarding and propaganda wars, seems, to me a world-beating, wicked and lethal disgrace."

 

[Strett]

Laugh away stretts: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19062715.letters-uk-ashamed-grabbing-hoarding-vaccines/
Here is an extract in case you don't have the attention span for the full thing:
"International bodies like WHO and the UN keep trying to warn the UK Government that until the whole world is vaccinated, no-one is safe. But it does not listen: its priority seems to be propaganda in the name of political survival. These politicians still chant "world-beating" . They don't seem to realise that, on their present course, they are indeed "beating the world" – confounding all valiant international efforts to make vaccines work the only way they can: by protecting everyone.

Norway is donating vaccines to poorer countries; in contrast, UK behaviour, mired in hoarding and propaganda wars, seems, to me a world-beating, wicked and lethal disgrace."

Eh?
You post a letter from a 'letters page' from a Frances McKie, Evanton dated 4th Feb and expect me to respond?

The next letter down...

...Johnson has managed to do two things well. One was procurement of an adequate vaccine supply and the other is the successful roll-out of this vaccine to the population. The Scottish Government, however, has not managed to roll out vaccination of the population as efficiently. The First Minister explains that this is because Scotland chose to prioritise care homes and this is, by necessity, a slower process. This argument cries out to be challenged.

Dearie me, this is very desperate.

 

[Strett]

Laugh away stretts: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19062715.letters-uk-ashamed-grabbing-hoarding-vaccines/
Here is an extract in case you don't have the attention span for the full thing:
"International bodies like WHO and the UN keep trying to warn the UK Government that until the whole world is vaccinated, no-one is safe. But it does not listen: its priority seems to be propaganda in the name of political survival. These politicians still chant "world-beating" . They don't seem to realise that, on their present course, they are indeed "beating the world" – confounding all valiant international efforts to make vaccines work the only way they can: by protecting everyone.

Norway is donating vaccines to poorer countries; in contrast, UK behaviour, mired in hoarding and propaganda wars, seems, to me a world-beating, wicked and lethal disgrace."

LOL,

Further down...

WHY NOT THE CHINA VIRUS?

EVERY day I read about different strains of the Covid virus being named after their origin, such as the Brazil version, the South Africa variety, the London/Kent. So why was there so much international indignation and outrage when former President Trump called Covid the China Virus?

Mr Trump got hammered for using the term but was he so wrong? China, after all, has form in this regard as both bird flu and Sars originated there. Why shouldn't China compensate the rest of the world in some way for the pandemic?

James Miller, Glasgow G12.

 

[Strett]

Laugh away stretts: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19062715.letters-uk-ashamed-grabbing-hoarding-vaccines/
Here is an extract in case you don't have the attention span for the full thing:
"International bodies like WHO and the UN keep trying to warn the UK Government that until the whole world is vaccinated, no-one is safe. But it does not listen: its priority seems to be propaganda in the name of political survival. These politicians still chant "world-beating" . They don't seem to realise that, on their present course, they are indeed "beating the world" – confounding all valiant international efforts to make vaccines work the only way they can: by protecting everyone.

Norway is donating vaccines to poorer countries; in contrast, UK behaviour, mired in hoarding and propaganda wars, seems, to me a world-beating, wicked and lethal disgrace."

LOL,

The first reply to this letter you liked...

Straight from the "Westminster baaaad" playbook. How well would an "independent" Scotland, shackled to the bureaucratic, sclerotic ineptitude of Brussels fare in the vaccine wars? If it was in a position to do so, would it act any differently to the UK government?

 

[Strett]

Unity of bloc crumbling over vaccine supplies.

Austria and Denmark break away from Brussels' vaccines strategy.
Austria and Denmark to go it alone after Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic negotiate for jabs outside of EU scheme

Austria and Denmark have become the latest EU countries to break away from Brussels' vaccines strategy, raising fears that the bloc's unity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic was crumbling.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Monday night said that Austria would work with Israel and Denmark on second generation coronavirus vaccines and “no longer rely on the EU in the future”.

It is widely seen as a rebuke to the European Commission-led joint procurement scheme for vaccines, which has lagged far behind the UK, Israel and US, and involved negotiating for supplies as a bloc.

"We must therefore prepare for further mutations and should no longer be dependent only on the EU for the production of second-generation vaccines," he said.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that she had already bid for supplies of Israel’s leftover vaccines in another sign of the disintegrating confidence in Brussels to deliver the jabs.

Mr Kurz is due to travel with Ms Frederiksen to see Israel's rapid vaccine roll-out up close in a visit that will cause blushes in Brussels.

The European Commission's preference is for member states to stick to the joint approach because side deals sap the bloc’s negotiating power.

EU rules allow national governments to approve and buy vaccines which are not part of the joint scheme, such as the Russian Sputnik and Chinese vaccines.

Other EU leaders have already moved to secure national supplies of the vaccines rather than wait for the EU scheme, which involved countries negotiating as a bloc to drive down prices.

Andrej Babis, the Czech prime minister, said he would not wait for the EU regulator before buying Sputnik.

Hungary has already approved and bought Sputnik without waiting for the EU regulator and is also the first member state to approve the Chinese vaccine.

On Sunday, Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, posted a photo of himself being vaccinated by the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. Budapest has bought 2m doses of Sputnik and 5m jabs of Sinopharm.

The authoritarian leader attacked the EU scheme in late February. “We’ve sought to do something together that we could have managed more successfully on an individual basis – take a look at the examples of Britain or Serbia,” he said.

Regional leaders in France said they would try and negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies in January but have so far had no success.

Germany ordered 30 million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine outside of the scheme in September. Berlin also has a separate order of 20m doses with CureVac.

“We have all agreed that there will be no parallel negotiations or parallel contracts,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters after news of the German side deals broke.

A commission spokesman said that the joint vaccine programme had not crumbled and warned that emergency authorisations of jabs at national level could be risky.

"It's not that the strategy unravelled," the spokesman said, "For our vaccines, we go through the European Medicines Agency because we want to ensure efficacy and safety. What member states do in addition to that, it's their responsibility."

The under-fire European Commission president has repeatedly defended the decision to negotiate as a bloc, despite a row following supply shortfalls from AstraZeneca.

She said the strategy ensured smaller member states had access to the jabs in the European Parliament in February.

She claimed it would have been “the end of our community”, if larger, richer countries had snapped up all the vaccines instead of securing them jointly as a Union.

Brussels has secured and authorised supplies of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines but the distribution of the jabs at national level have been slow.




Perhaps the good people of the sovereign nations of Europe are now realising why we left that hapless club called the EU.

 

[Basha73]

Unity of bloc crumbling over vaccine supplies.

Austria and Denmark break away from Brussels' vaccines strategy.
Austria and Denmark to go it alone after Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic negotiate for jabs outside of EU scheme

Austria and Denmark have become the latest EU countries to break away from Brussels' vaccines strategy, raising fears that the bloc's unity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic was crumbling.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Monday night said that Austria would work with Israel and Denmark on second generation coronavirus vaccines and “no longer rely on the EU in the future”.

It is widely seen as a rebuke to the European Commission-led joint procurement scheme for vaccines, which has lagged far behind the UK, Israel and US, and involved negotiating for supplies as a bloc.

"We must therefore prepare for further mutations and should no longer be dependent only on the EU for the production of second-generation vaccines," he said.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that she had already bid for supplies of Israel’s leftover vaccines in another sign of the disintegrating confidence in Brussels to deliver the jabs.

Mr Kurz is due to travel with Ms Frederiksen to see Israel's rapid vaccine roll-out up close in a visit that will cause blushes in Brussels.

The European Commission's preference is for member states to stick to the joint approach because side deals sap the bloc’s negotiating power.

EU rules allow national governments to approve and buy vaccines which are not part of the joint scheme, such as the Russian Sputnik and Chinese vaccines.

Other EU leaders have already moved to secure national supplies of the vaccines rather than wait for the EU scheme, which involved countries negotiating as a bloc to drive down prices.

Andrej Babis, the Czech prime minister, said he would not wait for the EU regulator before buying Sputnik.

Hungary has already approved and bought Sputnik without waiting for the EU regulator and is also the first member state to approve the Chinese vaccine.

On Sunday, Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, posted a photo of himself being vaccinated by the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. Budapest has bought 2m doses of Sputnik and 5m jabs of Sinopharm.

The authoritarian leader attacked the EU scheme in late February. “We’ve sought to do something together that we could have managed more successfully on an individual basis – take a look at the examples of Britain or Serbia,” he said.

Regional leaders in France said they would try and negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies in January but have so far had no success.

Germany ordered 30 million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine outside of the scheme in September. Berlin also has a separate order of 20m doses with CureVac.

“We have all agreed that there will be no parallel negotiations or parallel contracts,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters after news of the German side deals broke.

A commission spokesman said that the joint vaccine programme had not crumbled and warned that emergency authorisations of jabs at national level could be risky.

"It's not that the strategy unravelled," the spokesman said, "For our vaccines, we go through the European Medicines Agency because we want to ensure efficacy and safety. What member states do in addition to that, it's their responsibility."

The under-fire European Commission president has repeatedly defended the decision to negotiate as a bloc, despite a row following supply shortfalls from AstraZeneca.

She said the strategy ensured smaller member states had access to the jabs in the European Parliament in February.

She claimed it would have been “the end of our community”, if larger, richer countries had snapped up all the vaccines instead of securing them jointly as a Union.

Brussels has secured and authorised supplies of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines but the distribution of the jabs at national level have been slow.




Perhaps the good people of the sovereign nations of Europe are now realising why we left that hapless club called the EU.

Or perhaps the good people of our sovereign nation will realise we could have gone our own way on vaccines without leaving the EU.

 

[Basha73]

Eh?
You post a letter from a 'letters page' from a Frances McKie, Evanton dated 4th Feb and expect me to respond?

The next letter down...

...Johnson has managed to do two things well. One was procurement of an adequate vaccine supply and the other is the successful roll-out of this vaccine to the population. The Scottish Government, however, has not managed to roll out vaccination of the population as efficiently. The First Minister explains that this is because Scotland chose to prioritise care homes and this is, by necessity, a slower process. This argument cries out to be challenged.

Dearie me, this is very desperate.

I think you are missing the point, possibly deliberately.

It is great that we are doing so well with the vaccinations but are we helping anyone else at the same time? Until everyone that can be is vaccinated there will always be the possibility of further mutations.

If we are not actively trying to solve the problem in a global sense then our parochial ‘Britain first’ outlook is very much going to be part of the problem.

 

[flipleflem]

I think you are missing the point, possibly deliberately.

It is great that we are doing so well with the vaccinations but are we helping anyone else at the same time? Until everyone that can be is vaccinated there will always be the possibility of further mutations.

If we are not actively trying to solve the problem in a global sense then our parochial ‘Britain first’ outlook is very much going to be part of the problem.

Surely it has to be Britain first and then look to help elsewhere when we've all been vaccinated. Pretty sure that's just what we will do.

 

[Basha73]

Surely it has to be Britain first and then look to help elsewhere when we've all been vaccinated. Pretty sure that's just what we will do.

We started vaccinating in December and it’s now March. We have more vaccines than we need and yet we have shown no sign at all of helping anyone else.

Welcome to Brexit Britain...

 

[in_the_top_one]

Britain First.
Might catch on, I suppose.

 

[in_the_top_one]

Unity of bloc crumbling over vaccine supplies.

Austria and Denmark break away from Brussels' vaccines strategy.
Austria and Denmark to go it alone after Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic negotiate for jabs outside of EU scheme

Austria and Denmark have become the latest EU countries to break away from Brussels' vaccines strategy, raising fears that the bloc's unity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic was crumbling.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Monday night said that Austria would work with Israel and Denmark on second generation coronavirus vaccines and “no longer rely on the EU in the future”.

It is widely seen as a rebuke to the European Commission-led joint procurement scheme for vaccines, which has lagged far behind the UK, Israel and US, and involved negotiating for supplies as a bloc.

"We must therefore prepare for further mutations and should no longer be dependent only on the EU for the production of second-generation vaccines," he said.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that she had already bid for supplies of Israel’s leftover vaccines in another sign of the disintegrating confidence in Brussels to deliver the jabs.

Mr Kurz is due to travel with Ms Frederiksen to see Israel's rapid vaccine roll-out up close in a visit that will cause blushes in Brussels.

The European Commission's preference is for member states to stick to the joint approach because side deals sap the bloc’s negotiating power.

EU rules allow national governments to approve and buy vaccines which are not part of the joint scheme, such as the Russian Sputnik and Chinese vaccines.

Other EU leaders have already moved to secure national supplies of the vaccines rather than wait for the EU scheme, which involved countries negotiating as a bloc to drive down prices.

Andrej Babis, the Czech prime minister, said he would not wait for the EU regulator before buying Sputnik.

Hungary has already approved and bought Sputnik without waiting for the EU regulator and is also the first member state to approve the Chinese vaccine.

On Sunday, Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, posted a photo of himself being vaccinated by the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. Budapest has bought 2m doses of Sputnik and 5m jabs of Sinopharm.

The authoritarian leader attacked the EU scheme in late February. “We’ve sought to do something together that we could have managed more successfully on an individual basis – take a look at the examples of Britain or Serbia,” he said.

Regional leaders in France said they would try and negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies in January but have so far had no success.

Germany ordered 30 million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine outside of the scheme in September. Berlin also has a separate order of 20m doses with CureVac.

“We have all agreed that there will be no parallel negotiations or parallel contracts,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters after news of the German side deals broke.

A commission spokesman said that the joint vaccine programme had not crumbled and warned that emergency authorisations of jabs at national level could be risky.

"It's not that the strategy unravelled," the spokesman said, "For our vaccines, we go through the European Medicines Agency because we want to ensure efficacy and safety. What member states do in addition to that, it's their responsibility."

The under-fire European Commission president has repeatedly defended the decision to negotiate as a bloc, despite a row following supply shortfalls from AstraZeneca.

She said the strategy ensured smaller member states had access to the jabs in the European Parliament in February.

She claimed it would have been “the end of our community”, if larger, richer countries had snapped up all the vaccines instead of securing them jointly as a Union.

Brussels has secured and authorised supplies of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines but the distribution of the jabs at national level have been slow.




Perhaps the good people of the sovereign nations of Europe are now realising why we left that hapless club called the EU.

So is it the EU's slow procurement that has left all those vials of vaccine unused in Germany?

 

[Pope John XXIII]

I think you are missing the point, possibly deliberately.

It is great that we are doing so well with the vaccinations but are we helping anyone else at the same time? Until everyone that can be is vaccinated there will always be the possibility of further mutations.

If we are not actively trying to solve the problem in a global sense then our parochial ‘Britain first’ outlook is very much going to be part of the problem.

This is true.

But at the same time, is there anywhere else that actually had a worse problem with this in 2021?

We lost 30,000 people in a month. We became the country with the worst deaths per capita.

We are now 4th, behind Belgium, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Not exactly poor countries.

You get Bosnia Herzegovina in 9th, which is the first that I felt might be on the disadvantaged side. Bulgaria 13th, Peru 15th. If you add all their deaths together you get nowhere near half of the UKs.

We've had 1836 deaths per million. The countries mentioned are 400 per million below that. I recognise that access to testing is a factor in that, but the death stats are weighted to be as accurate as possible using expected deaths stats.

My point being that, wealth is one thing but very few countries had the kind of desperate need for vaccines that we have had in the last 3 months. If we are truly worried about mutation, it is the rest of the world that should have been looking to our plague Island and throwing vaccines our way, simply because of the volume of cases and proliferation of the disease.

Now that has calmed down we certainly can start thinking about sending excess to other countries. I'm sure CP will be along to tell us that we should start sending all our vaccines abroad as soon as all the over 40's are done

 

[in_the_top_one]

I imagine the smaller nations are pretty pleased with the procurement overall. Serbia are doing remarkably well.

Our roll out has undoubtedly been better, but remember that there is also a vaccinations strategy difference.
In terms of the percentage of our people who are fully vaccinated, we are behind most EU nations. We are behind France, Germany, Italy and Spain in terms of the total number of fully vaccinated people and by share of the population. We will probably overtake them in the long run on account of the large number of first jabs we have done.

I happen to think our strategy of increasing the gap to get lots of first jabs done is a good one. I said so at the time and gave reasons why... but we have to acknowledge that it was - and still is - a risk.

 

[Pearced]

Eh?
You post a letter from a 'letters page' from a Frances McKie, Evanton dated 4th Feb and expect me to respond?

The next letter down...

...Johnson has managed to do two things well. One was procurement of an adequate vaccine supply and the other is the successful roll-out of this vaccine to the population. The Scottish Government, however, has not managed to roll out vaccination of the population as efficiently. The First Minister explains that this is because Scotland chose to prioritise care homes and this is, by necessity, a slower process. This argument cries out to be challenged.

Dearie me, this is very desperate.

So you’ve stopped sneering at the term hoarding then. Progress

 

[Basha73]

This is true.

But at the same time, is there anywhere else that actually had a worse problem with this in 2021?

We lost 30,000 people in a month. We became the country with the worst deaths per capita.

We are now 4th, behind Belgium, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Not exactly poor countries.

You get Bosnia Herzegovina in 9th, which is the first that I felt might be on the disadvantaged side. Bulgaria 13th, Peru 15th. If you add all their deaths together you get nowhere near half of the UKs.

We've had 1836 deaths per million. The countries mentioned are 400 per million below that. I recognise that access to testing is a factor in that, but the death stats are weighted to be as accurate as possible using expected deaths stats.

My point being that, wealth is one thing but very few countries had the kind of desperate need for vaccines that we have had in the last 3 months. If we are truly worried about mutation, it is the rest of the world that should have been looking to our plague Island and throwing vaccines our way, simply because of the volume of cases and proliferation of the disease.

Now that has calmed down we certainly can start thinking about sending excess to other countries. I'm sure CP will be along to tell us that we should start sending all our vaccines abroad as soon as all the over 40's are done

As Brexit supporters were quick to crow about, we very quickly managed to obtain all the vaccines we needed and more.

Imagine if we had done this from within the EU. We could have actually led the way and helped other countries to follow.

Similarly we could have passed on some of our vaccines in lieu of future orders without affecting what we were doing and be seen properly as a global leader in the right way.

Unfortunately there is nothing to suggest either that we have done or will do this in future. Certainly not with the people we have in power and with some people just wanting to points score.

 

[Pope John XXIII]

As Brexit supporters were quick to crow about, we very quickly managed to obtain all the vaccines we needed and more.

Imagine if we had done this from within the EU. We could have actually led the way and helped other countries to follow.

Similarly we could have passed on some of our vaccines in lieu of future orders without affecting what we were doing and be seen properly as a global leader in the right way.

Unfortunately there is nothing to suggest either that we have done or will do this in future. Certainly not with the people we have in power and with some people just wanting to points score.

Had we still been in the EU, then our voice could well have led the EU to make different choices and be a hell of a lot better off than they are now.

 

[radfordinlondon]

Eh?
You post a letter from a 'letters page' from a Frances McKie, Evanton dated 4th Feb and expect me to respond?

The next letter down...

...Johnson has managed to do two things well. One was procurement of an adequate vaccine supply and the other is the successful roll-out of this vaccine to the population. The Scottish Government, however, has not managed to roll out vaccination of the population as efficiently. The First Minister explains that this is because Scotland chose to prioritise care homes and this is, by necessity, a slower process. This argument cries out to be challenged.

Dearie me, this is very desperate.

Speaking of desperate, any news on the global erasmus programme yet?

The loss of this fantastic programme and concern over the loss of opportunity for uk students was dulled by the announcement of a similar global scheme (yet another desperate gambit).

Speaking to some H.E. friends of mine and no hint of anything yet. Surely bojo wasnt lying about replacing erasmus?

 

[radfordinlondon]

Had we still been in the EU, then our voice could well have led the EU to make different choices and be a hell of a lot better off than they are now.

Indeed, had we done this we might have had some claim to being world class again.