| EU being silly over vaccines again 11:18 - Apr 26 with 6559 views | Pinewoodblue |
A French company , Valneva,, have failed to reach an agreement with regards to their Covid vaccine currently at phase 3 trial level.
The reason being they will not agree to all the condition the EU want to impose. Basically it is a repeat of what happened with AZ. UK government signed up for 100m doses last September and assisted financially in the development, and building of the plant in Scotland.
We have priority on order fulfillment.
https://valneva.com/press-release/valneva-switches-focus-to-bilateral-discussion
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:03 - Apr 26 with 808 views | jeera |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 13:51 - Apr 26 by EdwardStone |
The scientists who developed, and indeed continue to develop, the vaccines deserve a huge amount of respect. I genuinely believed that it couldn't be done
I suppose if you install a chancer in No 10 then he will.....take chances
I wonder if T May would have been quite so gung-ho with the public purse? |
"The scientists who developed, and indeed continue to develop, the vaccines"
Well, quite. It is their work and research that made it happen. Along with years of experience and groundwork already in place too. [Some] people do seem to think they started from scratch.
Also the Chinese thankfully released the data they held themselves in January last year which gave a head start.
It was the Task Force that made the rollout happen, and all the government had to do was sanction the public money to fund it all.
It is always funding that holds back research, and if one good thing will come from this awful virus, is that the huge amount of work that has gone into finding a solution will have a positive impact on other vaccines and treatments for other diseases. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:03 - Apr 26 with 810 views | Herbivore |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 13:30 - Apr 26 by clive_baker |
I think after 5 years of overly positive EU sentiment in our media we're now all minded to be surprised by any failings by the EU, but the reality is they're all as inept, bent and self serving as each other. Feck them all.
That's not to say we were right to leave the Union though, I still make that an utterly idiotic decision. |
"I think after 5 years of overly positive EU sentiment in our media we're now all minded to be surprised by any failings by the EU" - you what? Sorry mate, but that's nonsense. The two most widely read newspaper titles in this country are and always have been vocally anti-EU along with much of the rest of the press. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:04 - Apr 26 with 804 views | footers |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:03 - Apr 26 by Herbivore |
"I think after 5 years of overly positive EU sentiment in our media we're now all minded to be surprised by any failings by the EU" - you what? Sorry mate, but that's nonsense. The two most widely read newspaper titles in this country are and always have been vocally anti-EU along with much of the rest of the press. |
A bit like this, you mean?
EC regulations to ban playgrounds — Daily Express
Rolling acres outlawed by Brussels — The Telegraph
EU to scrap British exams — Sunday Express
Obscure EU law halting the sale of English oak seeds — Mail on Sunday
EU may try to ban sweet and toy ads — The Times
EU to tell British farmers what they can grow — Daily Mail
EU ‘Bans Boozing’ — Daily Star
Light ale to be forced to change its name by Eurocrats — Daily Mail
EU fanatics to be forced to sing dire anthem about EU ‘Motherland’ — The Sun
British apple trees facing chop by EU — The Times
EC plan to ban noisy toys — Sunday People
EU to ban bagpipes and trapeze artists — The Sun
Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules — Daily Telegraph
Straight cucumbers — The Sun
Curved bananas banned by Brussels bureaucrats — The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express
Brussels bans barmaids from showing cleavage — The Sun, Daily Telegraph
Rumpole’s wig to scrapped by EU — Mail on Sunday
Church bells silenced by fear of EU law — Daily Telegraph
Motorists to be charged to drive in city centres under EU plans — Daily Telegraph
EU to stop binge drinking by slapping extra tax on our booze — The Sun
Brandy butter to be renamed ‘brandy spreadable fat’ — The European
British loaf of bread under threat from EU — Daily Mail
Truckers face EU ban on fry-ups — The Sun
EU to ban Union Flag from British meat packs — Daily Express
EU seeks to outlaw 60 dog breeds — Europa News Agency
Double-decker buses to be banned — Daily Telegraph
EU bans eating competition cakes — Timesonline
Now EU officials want control of your CANDLES — Daily Express
21-gun salutes are just too loud, Brussels tells the Royal Artillery — Mail on Sunday
Brussels threatens charity shops and car boot sales — Daily Mail
Plot to axe British number plates for standardised EU design — Daily Express
Women to be asked intimate details about sex lives in planned EU census — Daily Express
British cheese faces extinction under EU rules — PA News
EU meddlers ban kids on milk rounds — The Sun, The Telegraph
British chocolate to be renamed ‘vegelate’ under EU rules — Daily Mail
EU to ban church bells — Daily Telegraph
British film producers warn of new EU threat to industry — The Independent
Kilts to be branded womenswear by EU — Daily Record
EU to ban double decker buses — Daily Mail
Cod to be renamed ‘Gadus’ thanks to EU — Daily Mail
Brussels to restrict drinking habits of Britain’s coffee lovers — Daily Express
EU responsible for your hay fever — Daily Mail, The Times
Condom dimensions to be harmonised — Independent on Sunday
EU wants to BAN your photos of the London Eye — Daily Express
Corgis to be banned by EU — Daily Mail
EU forcing cows to wear nappies — Daily Mail
Eurocrats to ban crayons and colouring pencils — The Sun
Smoky bacon crisps face EU ban — Sunday Times
EU outlaws teeth whitening products — Daily Mail
Domain names — ‘.uk’ to be replaced by ‘.eu’ — Daily Mail
Brussels to ban HGV drivers from wearing glasses — The Times
New eggs cannot be called eggs — Daily Mail
EU to ban selling eggs by the dozen — Daily Mail
UK to be forced to adopt continental two pin plug — Daily Star, Daily Mail
EU targets traditional Sunday roast — Sun on Sunday
English Channel to be re-named ‘Anglo-French Pond’ — Daily Mail
Brussels to force EU flag on England shirts — Daily Mail
EU orders farmers to give toys to pigs — The Times
Firemen’s poles outlawed by EU — Daily Mail
Euro ban on food waste means swans cannot be fed — The Observer
Noise regulations to force football goers to wear earplugs — The Sun
Traditional Irish funeral under threat from EU — Daily Telegraph, The Times
EU to ban high-heel shoes for hairdressers — Daily Express
Commission to force fishermen to wear hairnets — Daily Telegraph
Brussels to ban herbal cures — Daily Express
Bureaucrats declare Britain is “not an island”— the Guardian
EU bid to ban life sentences for murderers — Daily Express
New EU map makes Kent part of France — Sunday Telegraph
EU tells Welsh how to grow their leeks — The Times
EU to ban lollipop ladies’ sticks — News of the World
EU plot to rename Trafalgar Square & Waterloo station — Daily Express
UK milk ‘pinta’ threatened by Brussels — The Sun
EU bans ‘mince’ pies — Daily Mail
Eurocrats say Santa must be a woman — The Sun
Now EU crackpots demand gypsy MPs — Daily Express
Brussels to outlaw mushy peas — The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times
Brussels says shellfish must be given rest breaks on journeys — The Times
Pets must be pressure cooked after death — Sunday Telegraph
EU puts speed limit on children’s roundabouts — Daily Express
2-for-1 bargains to be scrapped by EU — Daily Mirror
EU madness: chat up bar girl and pub will be fined — Daily Star
Queen to be forced to get her own tea by EU — The Sun
EU tells women to hand in worn-out sex toys — The Sun
British rhubarb to be straight — The Sun
EU to ban rocking horses — The Sun
Scotch whisky rebranded a dangerous chemical by EU — Daily Telegraph
Brussels ban on pints of shandy — The Times
“High up” signs to be put on mountains — BBC
Euronotes cause impotence — Daily Mail
EU to ban under 16-year-olds from using Facebook — Daily Mail
Strawberries must be oval — The Sun
EU orders swings to be pulled down — Daily Express
Tea bags banned from being recycled — BBC
British lav to be replaced with Euro-loo — The Sun
Unwanted Valentine’s cards to be defined as sexual harrasment — Daily Telegraph
Bosses to be told what colour carpets to buy by EU — Daily Star
EU says British yoghurt to be renamed ‘Fermented Milk Pudding’ — Sunday Mirror
EU to ban zipper trousers — The Sun |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:08 - Apr 26 with 784 views | J2BLUE |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:04 - Apr 26 by footers |
A bit like this, you mean?
EC regulations to ban playgrounds — Daily Express
Rolling acres outlawed by Brussels — The Telegraph
EU to scrap British exams — Sunday Express
Obscure EU law halting the sale of English oak seeds — Mail on Sunday
EU may try to ban sweet and toy ads — The Times
EU to tell British farmers what they can grow — Daily Mail
EU ‘Bans Boozing’ — Daily Star
Light ale to be forced to change its name by Eurocrats — Daily Mail
EU fanatics to be forced to sing dire anthem about EU ‘Motherland’ — The Sun
British apple trees facing chop by EU — The Times
EC plan to ban noisy toys — Sunday People
EU to ban bagpipes and trapeze artists — The Sun
Children to be banned from blowing up balloons, under EU safety rules — Daily Telegraph
Straight cucumbers — The Sun
Curved bananas banned by Brussels bureaucrats — The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express
Brussels bans barmaids from showing cleavage — The Sun, Daily Telegraph
Rumpole’s wig to scrapped by EU — Mail on Sunday
Church bells silenced by fear of EU law — Daily Telegraph
Motorists to be charged to drive in city centres under EU plans — Daily Telegraph
EU to stop binge drinking by slapping extra tax on our booze — The Sun
Brandy butter to be renamed ‘brandy spreadable fat’ — The European
British loaf of bread under threat from EU — Daily Mail
Truckers face EU ban on fry-ups — The Sun
EU to ban Union Flag from British meat packs — Daily Express
EU seeks to outlaw 60 dog breeds — Europa News Agency
Double-decker buses to be banned — Daily Telegraph
EU bans eating competition cakes — Timesonline
Now EU officials want control of your CANDLES — Daily Express
21-gun salutes are just too loud, Brussels tells the Royal Artillery — Mail on Sunday
Brussels threatens charity shops and car boot sales — Daily Mail
Plot to axe British number plates for standardised EU design — Daily Express
Women to be asked intimate details about sex lives in planned EU census — Daily Express
British cheese faces extinction under EU rules — PA News
EU meddlers ban kids on milk rounds — The Sun, The Telegraph
British chocolate to be renamed ‘vegelate’ under EU rules — Daily Mail
EU to ban church bells — Daily Telegraph
British film producers warn of new EU threat to industry — The Independent
Kilts to be branded womenswear by EU — Daily Record
EU to ban double decker buses — Daily Mail
Cod to be renamed ‘Gadus’ thanks to EU — Daily Mail
Brussels to restrict drinking habits of Britain’s coffee lovers — Daily Express
EU responsible for your hay fever — Daily Mail, The Times
Condom dimensions to be harmonised — Independent on Sunday
EU wants to BAN your photos of the London Eye — Daily Express
Corgis to be banned by EU — Daily Mail
EU forcing cows to wear nappies — Daily Mail
Eurocrats to ban crayons and colouring pencils — The Sun
Smoky bacon crisps face EU ban — Sunday Times
EU outlaws teeth whitening products — Daily Mail
Domain names — ‘.uk’ to be replaced by ‘.eu’ — Daily Mail
Brussels to ban HGV drivers from wearing glasses — The Times
New eggs cannot be called eggs — Daily Mail
EU to ban selling eggs by the dozen — Daily Mail
UK to be forced to adopt continental two pin plug — Daily Star, Daily Mail
EU targets traditional Sunday roast — Sun on Sunday
English Channel to be re-named ‘Anglo-French Pond’ — Daily Mail
Brussels to force EU flag on England shirts — Daily Mail
EU orders farmers to give toys to pigs — The Times
Firemen’s poles outlawed by EU — Daily Mail
Euro ban on food waste means swans cannot be fed — The Observer
Noise regulations to force football goers to wear earplugs — The Sun
Traditional Irish funeral under threat from EU — Daily Telegraph, The Times
EU to ban high-heel shoes for hairdressers — Daily Express
Commission to force fishermen to wear hairnets — Daily Telegraph
Brussels to ban herbal cures — Daily Express
Bureaucrats declare Britain is “not an island”— the Guardian
EU bid to ban life sentences for murderers — Daily Express
New EU map makes Kent part of France — Sunday Telegraph
EU tells Welsh how to grow their leeks — The Times
EU to ban lollipop ladies’ sticks — News of the World
EU plot to rename Trafalgar Square & Waterloo station — Daily Express
UK milk ‘pinta’ threatened by Brussels — The Sun
EU bans ‘mince’ pies — Daily Mail
Eurocrats say Santa must be a woman — The Sun
Now EU crackpots demand gypsy MPs — Daily Express
Brussels to outlaw mushy peas — The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times
Brussels says shellfish must be given rest breaks on journeys — The Times
Pets must be pressure cooked after death — Sunday Telegraph
EU puts speed limit on children’s roundabouts — Daily Express
2-for-1 bargains to be scrapped by EU — Daily Mirror
EU madness: chat up bar girl and pub will be fined — Daily Star
Queen to be forced to get her own tea by EU — The Sun
EU tells women to hand in worn-out sex toys — The Sun
British rhubarb to be straight — The Sun
EU to ban rocking horses — The Sun
Scotch whisky rebranded a dangerous chemical by EU — Daily Telegraph
Brussels ban on pints of shandy — The Times
“High up” signs to be put on mountains — BBC
Euronotes cause impotence — Daily Mail
EU to ban under 16-year-olds from using Facebook — Daily Mail
Strawberries must be oval — The Sun
EU orders swings to be pulled down — Daily Express
Tea bags banned from being recycled — BBC
British lav to be replaced with Euro-loo — The Sun
Unwanted Valentine’s cards to be defined as sexual harrasment — Daily Telegraph
Bosses to be told what colour carpets to buy by EU — Daily Star
EU says British yoghurt to be renamed ‘Fermented Milk Pudding’ — Sunday Mirror
EU to ban zipper trousers — The Sun |
Fireman's poles to be outlawed...
Stripper poles ok though right? Right?!? |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:09 - Apr 26 with 774 views | footers |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:08 - Apr 26 by J2BLUE |
Fireman's poles to be outlawed...
Stripper poles ok though right? Right?!? |
I've never seen a stripper who's had a pole. But whatever floats your boat, J2... | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:09 - Apr 26 with 748 views | Timefliesbyintheblue |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 13:56 - Apr 26 by usm |
Youve forgotten the rules, J2.
Rule 1. Anything the Tories do or say is bad.
Rule 2. There are no more rules. |
Rule 1 A) Anything the Tories do or say is bad
Rule 1 B) If it doesn't work well it is the fault of Boris. For example PPE
Rule 1 C) If it does work Boris is in no way responsible. For example Vaccine roll out.
Rule 2. There are no more rules. |  | | |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:22 - Apr 26 with 745 views | GlasgowBlue |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 13:55 - Apr 26 by factual_blue |
And as I've pointed out to you before, the government have had no part in the administrative task of delivering the vaccine programme. A government (ie the Cabinet) makes political decisions, they don't carry out administrative tasks, or even play any meaningful role in them.
In the vaccine roll-out programme the Cabinet decision will have been 'do we vaccinate people or not'.
A bit of a no-brainer, so they managed to get the decision right.
The credit you look to give is to the NHS, Local Authority and Civil Service staff who between them have made the delivery programme work. |
For people who are interested in the facts rather than engaging in tribal political point scoring, then this is a good read.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/secrets-of-the-vaccine-taskforces-success
And if you can’t get past paywall.....
Secrets of the Vaccine Taskforce’s success
Until a few weeks ago, the government’s track record on Covid was one of repeated failure. The death toll, the depth of the recession, the public disapproval of the government: Britain’s figures were among the worst in the world. But with vaccines, things have changed. The UK is now on track to be the first major country in the world to vaccinate its way out of lockdown.
The foreign press coverage has turned from mockery to awe, with Britain having vaccinated more people than France, Germany, Italy and Spain put together. Many of those behind this success are virtually unknown to the public. Their story matters, because the Vaccine Taskforce is already being looked to by ministers as a model for how government should work once the pandemic is over.
Its success starts with a failure: the debacle over PPE. When the virus started, Britain was supposed to unlock the reserves of plastic gloves and gowns prepared for a pandemic by Public Health England. Instead, the fiasco that followed saw the government fleeced by private consultants as countries across the world scrabbled for supply and contracts became meaningless. It was a model of what not to do.
Tensions across government ran high – with Downing Street blaming the Department of Health for the debacle. ‘It was a sh1tshow,’ said a No. 10 aide reflecting on that period. Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, concluded that the search for a vaccine would require a new approach – picking a team of outsiders with heft and expertise.
At first, vaccines were seen as a remote possibility – officials pointed out the millions spent in vain on finding a jab for HIV. ‘It was viewed as one of several work-streams,’ says a government aide who was working in No. 10 at the time. ‘The Prime Minister’s main concern was avoiding another lockdown by whatever means available. Which didn’t work.’
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, was more optimistic. The example he brought up, however, was the ending of the pandemic film Contagion, where a vaccine is eventually found but there is a scramble to buy it. A reminder, he said, of the need to prepare.
At the time, scientists at Oxford University were working on a vaccine for Mers, an earlier coronavirus. They switched to Covid-19 in early February and looked for a commercial partner: a deal was almost signed with Merck, a US giant, until the small print came up. ‘We needed a cast-iron pledge that they’d supply us exclusively first, but it said “best efforts”,’ says one minister. The fear, then, was that America would ban vaccine exports.
When AstraZeneca came along, the first contract was not good enough – Hancock passed a draft to Downing Street, and Sir Patrick and No. 10 aides spotted a supply problem. It did not give the UK the rights to the vaccine that it now enjoys. They came up with the idea to pay for almost all manufacturing costs in return for secure supply in a British plant. ‘Vallance was hammering the point about onshore manufacturing from early on,’ says an official. ‘He was responsible for that Oxford deal.’
Sir Patrick — backed by Dominic Cummings — went to the Prime Minister and said that a vaccine tsar should be appointed so as to avoid repeating old mistakes. The Chancellor agreed — as a former investor with portfolio he believed a hawkish approach on contracts was necessary, even if it carried risk levels that led Treasury officials to describe it as 'an extremely unusual programme'. ‘They needed someone with immense private expertise – a dealmaker,’ says an aide.
In many ways, Kate Bingham was an obvious choice. An established venture capitalist, she has spent her career investing in pharma companies. But her appointment also led to charges of cronyism: she’s married to Jesse Norman, a Treasury minister, and was at school with Rachel Johnson, the Prime Minister’s sister. ‘Boris picked Kate,’ says one minister. ‘It was his big contribution.’ Given 24 hours to consider, she hesitated on the grounds that she had more expertise in therapeutics than vaccines. But she accepted. The post was unpaid.
Others on the taskforce had already been picked by Sir Patrick – who thought that either vaccines or therapeutics would come off, so it was best to bet big on both. He worried about how little anyone in government knew about vaccines: without importing expertise he feared they were doomed to fail. ‘The briefing notes the civil servants were sending in had basic errors in them,’ says one minister. ‘It was shocking.’ Ian McCubbin, a GlaxoSmithKline veteran, was the first to be hired. He was asked how, if the Oxford vaccine worked, it could be mass-produced.
The Oxford Biomedica plant, where the AZ vaccine is now being made, was identified by the Business department. ‘We effectively commandeered the manufacturing plant,’ says a minister. The big concern was about the ‘fill and finish’ part of the vaccine process, where drugs are put into a vial. An order was quickly put in for Wockhardt Ltd in Wrexham, which was booked for 18 months. (One of the Prime Minister’s jokes is that it is so-named because they like to work hard.) It is now churning out Oxford vials.
The other mainstay of the Vaccine Taskforce was Nick Elliott, a former army bomb disposal engineer who worked on the railways before specialising in defence procurement. His brief was to ‘make things happen’ – specifically negotiating and delivering contracts. Then came Clive Dix, a Brummie pharmaceuticals chief exec who had known Bingham professionally for years. There were civil servants too. One was Ruth Todd, seconded from the Submarine Delivery Agency. She came up with the idea of codenames for the vaccines, in case any official documents leaked and worldwide competitors would know which vaccines Britain was eyeing. Most members of the taskforce never physically met Bingham, with meetings conducted online.
The UK could not rely on one vaccine coming through. Bingham shortened the 120-odd vaccine candidates to a 23-strong shortlist. Orders were placed for seven vaccines in total, of which three have already been approved, with another three expected. (Sanofi, the French offering, looks like it might fail.) A crunch moment came when Clive Dix chose to prioritise Pfizer over Moderna, whose officials had made headway with the government before Bingham started. The bet was that, for all Moderna’s promise, it would arrive later. So it was to prove: the first orders of Pfizer arrived in December. Moderna is not due until the spring.
There were also tensions over the numbers, with Hancock worried that Bingham only wanted to vaccinate half of the population deemed to be ‘at risk’. He upped the order (which now stands at over 400 million doses for a UK population of 67 million). The plan was always to donate spares to the developing world.
Rolling out the vaccines needed military precision – and the military. Soldiers from 101 Logistic Brigade, under the command of Brigadier Phil Prosser, had been embedded in the NHS since the PPE debacle. ‘They used the same principles of logistics that they did in Afghanistan or Iraq,’ says one official. ‘To them, there is no such thing as “Can’t do it”.’
But there were still several near-misses. One came during the port closures following the French response to the Kent strain of Covid. Lorries were stuck on motorways and among them a delivery of Pfizer vaccines that, once loaded, had to be used within ten days. Ruth Todd didn’t sleep for 36 hours as she came up with contingency plans, including an RAF airlift. ‘We got it from Belgium through France, through the tunnel, into the UK, into our warehouse, in the middle of 3,000 lorries being stuck,’ says one involved.
Once the vaccines were ready to go and be distributed to hospitals and care homes, a plan was needed to ensure that this was done speedily – by bringing in the private sector. As Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be transported at temperatures below freezing, a decision was made not to rely on PHE logistics but to go to companies already used to cold-chain medicine – the distribution arms of Boots and Superdrug. One minister describes it as ‘the best decision we made’.
Though Bingham’s gambles were paying off, she started to become the subject of negative press, with a piece in the Sunday Times saying she had spent £670,000 on PR consultants. Some suspected the briefings were from government departments jealous of her profile. Aides deny it. But when she left the Vaccine Taskforce at the end of December without staying on as an adviser, some thought it a result of her treatment. She has now returned to her investment fund.
The story is not over – and it won’t be a true success story until the vaccines issued are proven to work as advertised. If they do, Covid hospital deaths are projected to be 85 per cent lower than they otherwise would be.
But in terms of how things operated, the Vaccine Taskforce is being seen inside government as exemplary. ‘It makes us ask: is it possible to get things done at this speed and with this competence outside of a pandemic?’ says one minister. An unpublished Treasury report on the process is understood to describe it as a blueprint for an industrial strategy in the future.
And for anyone who says that we could have done all of the above had we remained members of the EU.....
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:24 - Apr 26 with 740 views | J2BLUE |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:09 - Apr 26 by footers |
I've never seen a stripper who's had a pole. But whatever floats your boat, J2... |
 Brilliant | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:27 - Apr 26 with 735 views | jeera |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:08 - Apr 26 by J2BLUE |
Fireman's poles to be outlawed...
Stripper poles ok though right? Right?!? |
Tell me this one's true:
"Brussels says shellfish must be given rest breaks on journeys — The Times". | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:31 - Apr 26 with 719 views | J2BLUE |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:27 - Apr 26 by jeera |
Tell me this one's true:
"Brussels says shellfish must be given rest breaks on journeys — The Times". |
There's several good reasons to be pro EU there. Banning church bells. Straight cucumbers (I assume this would benefit people as I refuse to believe most people buy them to eat them). etc. | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:35 - Apr 26 with 713 views | clive_baker |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:03 - Apr 26 by Herbivore |
"I think after 5 years of overly positive EU sentiment in our media we're now all minded to be surprised by any failings by the EU" - you what? Sorry mate, but that's nonsense. The two most widely read newspaper titles in this country are and always have been vocally anti-EU along with much of the rest of the press. |
I think it certainly depends on what media you opt in to. I actively avoid gutter press, and while mine tends to lean left of centre there's been a lot of far from objective pieces when it comes to the EU and it's influence. I don't doubt there's toxic little Englander redtops spouting guff though. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:36 - Apr 26 with 710 views | jeera |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:31 - Apr 26 by J2BLUE |
There's several good reasons to be pro EU there. Banning church bells. Straight cucumbers (I assume this would benefit people as I refuse to believe most people buy them to eat them). etc. |
Good job we left cos this one would never have caught on.
Imagine trying to implement that in your capital city.
"Motorists to be charged to drive in city centres under EU plans — Daily Telegraph". | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:56 - Apr 26 with 681 views | Swansea_Blue |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:22 - Apr 26 by GlasgowBlue |
For people who are interested in the facts rather than engaging in tribal political point scoring, then this is a good read.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/secrets-of-the-vaccine-taskforces-success
And if you can’t get past paywall.....
Secrets of the Vaccine Taskforce’s success
Until a few weeks ago, the government’s track record on Covid was one of repeated failure. The death toll, the depth of the recession, the public disapproval of the government: Britain’s figures were among the worst in the world. But with vaccines, things have changed. The UK is now on track to be the first major country in the world to vaccinate its way out of lockdown.
The foreign press coverage has turned from mockery to awe, with Britain having vaccinated more people than France, Germany, Italy and Spain put together. Many of those behind this success are virtually unknown to the public. Their story matters, because the Vaccine Taskforce is already being looked to by ministers as a model for how government should work once the pandemic is over.
Its success starts with a failure: the debacle over PPE. When the virus started, Britain was supposed to unlock the reserves of plastic gloves and gowns prepared for a pandemic by Public Health England. Instead, the fiasco that followed saw the government fleeced by private consultants as countries across the world scrabbled for supply and contracts became meaningless. It was a model of what not to do.
Tensions across government ran high – with Downing Street blaming the Department of Health for the debacle. ‘It was a sh1tshow,’ said a No. 10 aide reflecting on that period. Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, concluded that the search for a vaccine would require a new approach – picking a team of outsiders with heft and expertise.
At first, vaccines were seen as a remote possibility – officials pointed out the millions spent in vain on finding a jab for HIV. ‘It was viewed as one of several work-streams,’ says a government aide who was working in No. 10 at the time. ‘The Prime Minister’s main concern was avoiding another lockdown by whatever means available. Which didn’t work.’
Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, was more optimistic. The example he brought up, however, was the ending of the pandemic film Contagion, where a vaccine is eventually found but there is a scramble to buy it. A reminder, he said, of the need to prepare.
At the time, scientists at Oxford University were working on a vaccine for Mers, an earlier coronavirus. They switched to Covid-19 in early February and looked for a commercial partner: a deal was almost signed with Merck, a US giant, until the small print came up. ‘We needed a cast-iron pledge that they’d supply us exclusively first, but it said “best efforts”,’ says one minister. The fear, then, was that America would ban vaccine exports.
When AstraZeneca came along, the first contract was not good enough – Hancock passed a draft to Downing Street, and Sir Patrick and No. 10 aides spotted a supply problem. It did not give the UK the rights to the vaccine that it now enjoys. They came up with the idea to pay for almost all manufacturing costs in return for secure supply in a British plant. ‘Vallance was hammering the point about onshore manufacturing from early on,’ says an official. ‘He was responsible for that Oxford deal.’
Sir Patrick — backed by Dominic Cummings — went to the Prime Minister and said that a vaccine tsar should be appointed so as to avoid repeating old mistakes. The Chancellor agreed — as a former investor with portfolio he believed a hawkish approach on contracts was necessary, even if it carried risk levels that led Treasury officials to describe it as 'an extremely unusual programme'. ‘They needed someone with immense private expertise – a dealmaker,’ says an aide.
In many ways, Kate Bingham was an obvious choice. An established venture capitalist, she has spent her career investing in pharma companies. But her appointment also led to charges of cronyism: she’s married to Jesse Norman, a Treasury minister, and was at school with Rachel Johnson, the Prime Minister’s sister. ‘Boris picked Kate,’ says one minister. ‘It was his big contribution.’ Given 24 hours to consider, she hesitated on the grounds that she had more expertise in therapeutics than vaccines. But she accepted. The post was unpaid.
Others on the taskforce had already been picked by Sir Patrick – who thought that either vaccines or therapeutics would come off, so it was best to bet big on both. He worried about how little anyone in government knew about vaccines: without importing expertise he feared they were doomed to fail. ‘The briefing notes the civil servants were sending in had basic errors in them,’ says one minister. ‘It was shocking.’ Ian McCubbin, a GlaxoSmithKline veteran, was the first to be hired. He was asked how, if the Oxford vaccine worked, it could be mass-produced.
The Oxford Biomedica plant, where the AZ vaccine is now being made, was identified by the Business department. ‘We effectively commandeered the manufacturing plant,’ says a minister. The big concern was about the ‘fill and finish’ part of the vaccine process, where drugs are put into a vial. An order was quickly put in for Wockhardt Ltd in Wrexham, which was booked for 18 months. (One of the Prime Minister’s jokes is that it is so-named because they like to work hard.) It is now churning out Oxford vials.
The other mainstay of the Vaccine Taskforce was Nick Elliott, a former army bomb disposal engineer who worked on the railways before specialising in defence procurement. His brief was to ‘make things happen’ – specifically negotiating and delivering contracts. Then came Clive Dix, a Brummie pharmaceuticals chief exec who had known Bingham professionally for years. There were civil servants too. One was Ruth Todd, seconded from the Submarine Delivery Agency. She came up with the idea of codenames for the vaccines, in case any official documents leaked and worldwide competitors would know which vaccines Britain was eyeing. Most members of the taskforce never physically met Bingham, with meetings conducted online.
The UK could not rely on one vaccine coming through. Bingham shortened the 120-odd vaccine candidates to a 23-strong shortlist. Orders were placed for seven vaccines in total, of which three have already been approved, with another three expected. (Sanofi, the French offering, looks like it might fail.) A crunch moment came when Clive Dix chose to prioritise Pfizer over Moderna, whose officials had made headway with the government before Bingham started. The bet was that, for all Moderna’s promise, it would arrive later. So it was to prove: the first orders of Pfizer arrived in December. Moderna is not due until the spring.
There were also tensions over the numbers, with Hancock worried that Bingham only wanted to vaccinate half of the population deemed to be ‘at risk’. He upped the order (which now stands at over 400 million doses for a UK population of 67 million). The plan was always to donate spares to the developing world.
Rolling out the vaccines needed military precision – and the military. Soldiers from 101 Logistic Brigade, under the command of Brigadier Phil Prosser, had been embedded in the NHS since the PPE debacle. ‘They used the same principles of logistics that they did in Afghanistan or Iraq,’ says one official. ‘To them, there is no such thing as “Can’t do it”.’
But there were still several near-misses. One came during the port closures following the French response to the Kent strain of Covid. Lorries were stuck on motorways and among them a delivery of Pfizer vaccines that, once loaded, had to be used within ten days. Ruth Todd didn’t sleep for 36 hours as she came up with contingency plans, including an RAF airlift. ‘We got it from Belgium through France, through the tunnel, into the UK, into our warehouse, in the middle of 3,000 lorries being stuck,’ says one involved.
Once the vaccines were ready to go and be distributed to hospitals and care homes, a plan was needed to ensure that this was done speedily – by bringing in the private sector. As Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be transported at temperatures below freezing, a decision was made not to rely on PHE logistics but to go to companies already used to cold-chain medicine – the distribution arms of Boots and Superdrug. One minister describes it as ‘the best decision we made’.
Though Bingham’s gambles were paying off, she started to become the subject of negative press, with a piece in the Sunday Times saying she had spent £670,000 on PR consultants. Some suspected the briefings were from government departments jealous of her profile. Aides deny it. But when she left the Vaccine Taskforce at the end of December without staying on as an adviser, some thought it a result of her treatment. She has now returned to her investment fund.
The story is not over – and it won’t be a true success story until the vaccines issued are proven to work as advertised. If they do, Covid hospital deaths are projected to be 85 per cent lower than they otherwise would be.
But in terms of how things operated, the Vaccine Taskforce is being seen inside government as exemplary. ‘It makes us ask: is it possible to get things done at this speed and with this competence outside of a pandemic?’ says one minister. An unpublished Treasury report on the process is understood to describe it as a blueprint for an industrial strategy in the future.
And for anyone who says that we could have done all of the above had we remained members of the EU.....
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We could have done all of the above had we remained members of the EU. We were still in the transition period at the time, the MHRA's swift authorisation of the AZ/Oxford vaccine was done in compliance with the relevant EC Directive, and EU states aren't required to join the EU's joint procurement scheme.
Whether we would have gone it alone given a different political environment is certainly debatable, and we may well not have, but legally we could have done. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:00 - Apr 26 with 668 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:56 - Apr 26 by Swansea_Blue |
We could have done all of the above had we remained members of the EU. We were still in the transition period at the time, the MHRA's swift authorisation of the AZ/Oxford vaccine was done in compliance with the relevant EC Directive, and EU states aren't required to join the EU's joint procurement scheme.
Whether we would have gone it alone given a different political environment is certainly debatable, and we may well not have, but legally we could have done. |
But had we done that we wouldn't be as far forward with the roll out would we?
We'd be going at the EUs pace. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:01 - Apr 26 with 666 views | Herbivore |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:56 - Apr 26 by Swansea_Blue |
We could have done all of the above had we remained members of the EU. We were still in the transition period at the time, the MHRA's swift authorisation of the AZ/Oxford vaccine was done in compliance with the relevant EC Directive, and EU states aren't required to join the EU's joint procurement scheme.
Whether we would have gone it alone given a different political environment is certainly debatable, and we may well not have, but legally we could have done. |
Yep, this is entirely correct and is the point I've made to him previously. Nothing he has posted changes that. [Post edited 26 Apr 2021 15:01]
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:37 - Apr 26 with 639 views | factual_blue |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:03 - Apr 26 by longtimefan |
So the government are in no way responsible for the test and trace farce then? By your measure its simply a question of “do we test and trace or not” |
You're forgetting the political decision to appoint a patently unsuited crony to head up the T&T programme. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:53 - Apr 26 with 618 views | StokieBlue |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 14:31 - Apr 26 by J2BLUE |
There's several good reasons to be pro EU there. Banning church bells. Straight cucumbers (I assume this would benefit people as I refuse to believe most people buy them to eat them). etc. |
You've got something against cucumbers?
This food hatred needs to stop. Give cucumbers a chance.
SB |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:55 - Apr 26 with 611 views | footers |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:53 - Apr 26 by StokieBlue |
You've got something against cucumbers?
This food hatred needs to stop. Give cucumbers a chance.
SB |
But remember to remove the pips - it's the sign of good taste. | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:01 - Apr 26 with 601 views | J2BLUE |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 15:53 - Apr 26 by StokieBlue |
You've got something against cucumbers?
This food hatred needs to stop. Give cucumbers a chance.
SB |
No, no. I've got EVERYTHING against cucumbers. No redeeming features whatsoever unless you're in the middle of a desert desperate for water and stumble across a cucumber seller. I have to say I think it would be unlikely. | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:15 - Apr 26 with 575 views | clive_baker |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:01 - Apr 26 by J2BLUE |
No, no. I've got EVERYTHING against cucumbers. No redeeming features whatsoever unless you're in the middle of a desert desperate for water and stumble across a cucumber seller. I have to say I think it would be unlikely. |
Wait, what do you have in your Hendrick's & tonic? | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:18 - Apr 26 with 568 views | Herbivore |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:15 - Apr 26 by clive_baker |
Wait, what do you have in your Hendrick's & tonic? |
He probably puts Vimto in it, the wrong un. | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:19 - Apr 26 with 565 views | footers |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:15 - Apr 26 by clive_baker |
Wait, what do you have in your Hendrick's & tonic? |
Lemon or lime, like a normal human?
Cucumber belongs nowhere near gin. | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:20 - Apr 26 with 573 views | blueasfook |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 13:55 - Apr 26 by factual_blue |
And as I've pointed out to you before, the government have had no part in the administrative task of delivering the vaccine programme. A government (ie the Cabinet) makes political decisions, they don't carry out administrative tasks, or even play any meaningful role in them.
In the vaccine roll-out programme the Cabinet decision will have been 'do we vaccinate people or not'.
A bit of a no-brainer, so they managed to get the decision right.
The credit you look to give is to the NHS, Local Authority and Civil Service staff who between them have made the delivery programme work. |
Absolute nonsense. My own company was involved in the taskforce for sourcing ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic. The taskforce was headed up by a govt minister and consisted of a number of non-govt industry experts.
i dont recall many pencil pushing civil servants being involved at all. |  |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:20 - Apr 26 with 563 views | StokieBlue |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:01 - Apr 26 by J2BLUE |
No, no. I've got EVERYTHING against cucumbers. No redeeming features whatsoever unless you're in the middle of a desert desperate for water and stumble across a cucumber seller. I have to say I think it would be unlikely. |
Hmm.
Perhaps you need to expand your cucumber recipes?
I cured some salmon in beetroot and gin the other month and served it layered with beetroot jelly and pickled cucumbers filled with dill crème fraiche on the side.
It was rather good.
I think there is still scope for the humble cucumber to win you over.
SB | |
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| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:21 - Apr 26 with 562 views | Herbivore |
| EU being silly over vaccines again on 16:20 - Apr 26 by blueasfook |
Absolute nonsense. My own company was involved in the taskforce for sourcing ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic. The taskforce was headed up by a govt minister and consisted of a number of non-govt industry experts.
i dont recall many pencil pushing civil servants being involved at all. |
What's that got to do with the vaccination programme? | |
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