Re: EU About to Block Vaccine For the UK.
Originally Posted by
Percy Vere
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I read a similar article just now in the DE but the DE's version went on to say that it would be unlikely that BJ would, in fact, endorse such a ban - mores the pity. If only he had the cajones to just SAY he was contemplating a ban on exporting this raw material, what would the EU do?
Why should Boris join an infantile spat?
No, he's far better off doing just as he is now and letting the EU spit their dummies out IMHO.
They're doing a great job of making themselves the laughing-stock of the world all on their own without us sinking to their level.
Boris and his team have enough smarts to know that there are more ways than one of skinning the proverbial.
"Under a plan hatched in Whitehall, ministers are now working at pace on bringing as much production onshore to stop the risk that other countries can disrupt the process of getting jabs into British arms.
One Number 10 source said: “There is a lot of domestic production already. We are always looking at ways we can increase vaccine production in the UK. The Government is looking at ways vaccine supplies can be increased all the time.”
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business secretary, is understood to have held talks with Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, about how to accelerate production.
I've spoken elsewhere in these forums about UK plans dating back to 2018 for mass-production of vaccines with our VMIC which is almost ready (see below) and more.
In combination with Oxford's research, that's where the revised vaccines will come from that will combat variants of Covid.
The plan is to produce up to 70 million vaccine doses every four to six months.
That alone will surely be more than enough for our own needs, and if we are seen to export surplus to poorer countries .................
"The minister said: “The EU has monumentally ballsed this up. Madness! And then to play games and have a pop at AstraZeneca through bitterness and opportunism.
“And now it's coming back to bite them because they cannot get their population to take it. We will be the only coronavirus free country in Europe in August or September.”
The new Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire (which will be able to produce tens of millions of vaccines a year) is due to open this October after its build time was accelerated last year.
The Government is also working with Wockhardt, one of the largest generic pharmaceutical companies in the UK, to provide ‘fill and finish’ services as part of the effort to accelerate vaccine manufacturing in the UK.
Other plants are planned for Livingston in Scotland to produce the Valneva vaccine and in Darlington, where a Centre for Process Innovation will be built.
Ministers are also hoping Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine will be approved by regulators in the UK ready for a rollout in the UK this summer."
That (to me) just about sums it up, and highlights the huge difference between the UK's approach and that of the EU.
The UK has funded research and manufacturing, both beforehand and at an early stage in the pandemic too and not just into research by universities as well as multiple pharmaceutical companies but into manufacturing here within the UK.
The EU (or rather Germany) has funded one successful company's research (BioNtech) but
mostly has simply bought vaccines from pharmaceutical companies, and late-on in the pandemic at that.
It's pretty clear to me just whose strategy has been the most successful so far.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...amps-pressure/
https://www.ukri.org/news/prime-mini...vation-centre/