COVID Vaccine !

[midlife]

mmmm do you know what rate you going ? Think the whole thing is starting to run away with itself. Reports all the place that anyone and every is finding ways to get a jab. No one looks to be in charge of this always going to end badly when you have top down stance. Supply is not clear even more centres open I wonder if your hub has had orders cut given the whole NHS region has? Due to being too good at getting the job done. Gp’s around here are getting orders cut at the last minute. Today was the 5th time for Mrs 73 that an order never came.

Not sure, our region has vaccinated more priority groups than others so supplies may have been diverted to areas with lower vaccination rates. The info came to me quite late in the day when the EU had placed export restrictions on vaccines, maybe they are getting twitchy about Pfizer vaccines getting to the UK from the EU?

 

[Buck]

mmmm do you know what rate you going ? Think the whole thing is starting to run away with itself. Reports all the place that anyone and every is finding ways to get a jab. No one looks to be in charge of this always going to end badly when you have top down stance. Supply is not clear even more centres open I wonder if your hub has had orders cut given the whole NHS region has? Due to being too good at getting the job done. Gp’s around here are getting orders cut at the last minute. Today was the 5th time for Mrs 73 that an order never came.

it’s a lottery on supply. They are still using the push model whereas we were supposed to go to pull from last week.

This is causing real challenges in primary care as we are unable to plan. As a slight aside, we are high performing on cohorts 1-3 yet we have had our order for next week increased.

 

[Unkraut]

I'm very sure that even if the EU would get all of those 80 million vaccines right now they would'nt be able to distribute them so let them focus on getting their systems ready first, instead of starting vaccine wars when the arms are not ready to receive these vaccines.

I don't think the EU wants a vaccine war at all. Whilst I still think there is room for criticism, and I remain no fan of von der Leyen, it is not unreasonable for the EU to want AZ to deliver on the amounts in the contract. The reduction announced was enormous.

If any member state isn't ready to start vaccination, this is the fault of the state and not the EU. Some aspects of this have not been German bureaucracy's finest hour, but the main problem since the beginning and for the next few weeks is lack of vaccine, not failing infrastructure. Also hampered by difficulties getting names of elderly people to contact due to data protection provisions.

In last night's TV discussion of this there was some admiration for Britain in getting on with it, qualified by the fact Johnson took calculated risk in not waiting for full authorisation as the EU did, and is under pressure to have some success following a dismal last year, which in turn revealed a healthcare system ailing under years of Tory administration.

 

[midlife]

it’s a lottery on supply. They are still using the push model whereas we were supposed to go to pull from last week.

This is causing real challenges in primary care as we are unable to plan. As a slight aside, we are high performing on cohorts 1-3 yet we have had our order for next week increased.

Yep, Kanban pull model I'm using to restart my services. Push model means we will simply take whatever vaccine lands on the doorstep..

 

[Unkraut]

The info came to me quite late in the day when the EU had placed export restrictions on vaccines, maybe they are getting twitchy about Pfizer vaccines getting to the UK from the EU?

As I understand it the export restrictions are intended to ensure the production of vaccines in the EU is not diverted to third countries who are willing to pay more for it. There isn't anything particularly sinister in this, it's a sensible precaution.

 

[Buck]

Yep, Kanban pull model I'm using to restart my services. Push model means we will simply take whatever vaccine lands on the doorstep..

Same here. It does make it a real challenge when week one you get 400 then the week after 3,000.

 

[Rusty Nails]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/polit...rce=upday.samsung.browser&utm_medium=referral

Looks like a quick about-turn from the EU on its terrible idea.

 

[vickster]

Indeed
EU vaccine export row: Bloc backtracks on controls for NI https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55865539

Sensible move by U.K. not to react in haste. Worthwhile dithering for once

 

[Unkraut]

EU vaccine export row: Bloc backtracks on controls for NI

I'm all for not getting into vaccine wars in the midst of a pandemic, and although I haven't heard any comment on this particular issue, it is important to note that no-one across Europe trusts Boris Johnson, and the export controls envisaged are not unreasonable in the light of this.

 

[tom73]

Same here. It does make it a real challenge when week one you get 400 then the week after 3,000.

That’s the problem it’s set up in a no way to plan anything way. Having to cancel appointments is one thing but ramping it at short notice is a nightmare. Good job we don't run every vaccine program under this set up. Then to top it off they expect day to day work to carry on as if nothing is happening.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I haven't heard any comment on this particular issue [invoking Article 16 and resiling from that], it is important to note that no-one across Europe trusts Boris Johnson, and the export controls envisaged are not unreasonable in the light of this.

I have found your comments always very measured.
But what do you think the UK's PM trustworthiness has to do with the control of the movement of vaccines from their production in an EU country to one outside the EU? Do you really think/fear/(distrust) that the UK government will seek to control the export of vaccines to other countries? Do you think yesterday's shenanigins has enhanced the 'trustworthiness' of the EU, its Commission and its leader? (My answer: not much change: she is a politician.) This is the 'vaccines' thread. Other EU/UK threads are available > > >.
Although the Commission plan is 'merely' to seek a mechanism for transparency (ie visibility of movements of vaccines) which might simplistically be "not unreasonable", the inference that this might be followed by 'control' (ie preventing the export of vaccines) IS reasonable.
It must be intensely annoying to countries in the EU to be told by AZ (as the contract requires them to do without delay) that AZ can expect to manage only 31M doses (in a timeframe ?end March?) when the plan was to supply 80M, and provide the reason: continental plants that are producing the Oxford-AZ vaccine for EU supply have had production problems. This does point to the merit of having several different vaccines in the procurement portfolio. The EU (COVID-19 EMA pandemic Task Force) and UK (and others) have both/all taken this approach, and the EU seems just to have been unluckier (?self made luck by UK VTF? and self-made 'unluck' by the EMA/Commission?). There are bound to be bumps on all the roads. Normally British roads are the ones with more potholes (ime).

We should divert half a million doses of the Oxford AZ vaccine (from manufacturing plants in England) to Eire as soon as the most vulnerable element of the UK population has been done (15 Feb). This would demonstrate the enduring goodwill between the UK and Eire and take account of the Common Travel Area - there is no control over people (infected or not) travelling between our countries - whether across the Irish Sea or across the land border between the UK and Eire, sfaik. It makes no sense to vaccinate 70% of the UK adult population but leave those across the invisible land border only 20% vaccinated (population of Eire is just under 5M, strategy, 147k vaccinated up to 27 Jan, 3%, one of the best in EU).

 

[mjr]

I'm all for not getting into vaccine wars in the midst of a pandemic, and although I haven't heard any comment on this particular issue, it is important to note that no-one across Europe trusts Boris Johnson, and the export controls envisaged are not unreasonable in the light of this.

It is all a bit opaque just now. I didn't spot anything about the UK-Ireland border in the announcememnt at https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_307 or the linked speeches, q and a, draft regulations and so on. Most news media seem to be reporting each other except for the solidity of a few politicians commenting. It all seems a bit "The Thick of It" so far.

 

[classic33]

It is all a bit opaque just now. I didn't spot anything about the UK-Ireland border in the announcememnt at https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_307 or the linked speeches, q and a, draft regulations and so on. Most news media seem to be reporting each other except for the solidity of a few politicians commenting. It all seems a bit "The Thick of It" so far.

There's been "talks" about it in this last week.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/hea...der-into-north-amid-outcry-1.4471366?mode=amp

They didn't want it entering the UK mainland via the backdoor of northern Ireland.

 

[Ajax Bay]

The European Commission said (since resiled, thank goodness):
“Exports of goods from Northern Ireland to other parts of the United Kingdom cannot be restricted by Union [EU] law unless this is strictly required by international obligations of the Union.
“Therefore, movements of goods covered by this regulation between the Union and Northern Ireland should be treated as exports.
“Whilst quantitative restrictions on exports are prohibited between the Union and Northern Ireland, in accordance with Article 5 (5) of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, this is justified as a safeguard measure pursuant to Article 16 of that Protocol in order to avert serious societal difficulties due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the member states.”

 

[Ajax Bay]

One must assume, in a brainfart moment, the Commission seriously thought that Pfizer would route batches of the vaccine (NB at minus 70) via Eire and then Northern Ireland (population 2M), to get them to Great Britain? And sought to stop it. Desperate scrabbling for scapegoat(s) in an EU vaccine lacuna, not all of its own making.
Perhaps we could set up a vaccination centre in Kent for all truckers (UK and overseas nationals) on the cross-La Manche route to be stabbed, in our mutual interest, from mid February, in conjunction or not with the mandatory virus test administration.