EU demands UK vaccines

You couldn’t make it up.

The latest twist in the EU/AstraZeneca vaccine farce is that the EU is now demanding that tens of millions of vaccine doses manufactured in the UK are diverted to the continent.

The bloc believes that AZ has reneged on its delivery agreement and that British jabs are fair game. AZ is standing firm, insisting that British factories are part of Britain’s supply chain. The government has said that Britain’s agreement with AZ stipulates that only after the 100 million doses the UK has ordered have been delivered can supplies be sent to the EU.

The outrageous request feels like a desperate roll of the dice to salvage a faltering vaccination programme. The AZ vaccine, it should be remembered, is yet to be approved for use in the EU.

In a jaw-dropping interview yesterday – which will have gone down like a cup of the proverbial in Brussels – AZ’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, defended the company’s vaccine delivery to the EU. He said that the EU contract is “not a commitment” and that the reason for delays is because the bloc was late in signing the agreement – three months behind the UK. This meant that supply glitches hadn’t had time to be ironed out yet, as they had in Britain.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the company was wrong to say its agreement with the EU was non-binding. But Soriot was confident in the contract’s wording: “We said, ‘OK, we’re going to do our best, we’re going to try, but we cannot commit contractually because we are three months behind U.K… The contract is very clear: Our commitment is, I am quoting, ‘our best effort’”.

Soriot also acknowledged that “governments are under pressure” but “everybody is getting kind of a bit, you know, aggravated or emotional.”

Ouch.

In planned talks between the EU and AZ this evening, Kyriakides will tell Astrazeneca that the company is legally obliged to make up the shortfall of up to 75 million doses to the EU with doses manufactured in the UK.

But even arranging this simple rendezvous came with a dollop of drama. Earlier today a European Commission spokesperson said that AZ was refusing to attend the crunch meeting, a claim the company swiftly denied.

The talks, then, are going ahead and will give both sides a chance to hash out their differences. They may be some time.

Schools may reopen in March

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference this evening, Boris Johnson confirmed what many had expected, that schools would not reopen immediately after February half term. Instead, as long as the 15 million vaccine target is reached by mid-February, the “hope” is that the reopening of schools will begin on Monday 8 March. But the approach would be “gradual and phased”.

Still, at least we have a date, albeit a loose one.

More broadly, the PM said that there was currently “not enough data to know when it will be safe to reopen our society and economy”. Johnson pledged to set out “our plan for taking the country out of lockdown” when MPs return from their own half-term break on 22 February.

Johnson ran through the encouraging vaccine stats: over 6.8 million people jabbed (13 per cent of the adult population) including 80 per cent aged over 80. He again expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the 100,000 people who have now died with Covid.

Sadly, there could be many more. Prof Calum Semple, a government scientific adviser and member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told BBC’s Newsnight: “It would really not surprise me if we’re looking at another 40 to 50,000 deaths before this burns out. The deaths on the way up are likely to be mirrored by the number of deaths on the way down in this wave.”

Addressing the Commons earlier today, the PM defended compulsory hotel quarantine for foreign arrivals from 22 countries, with the phrase: “A new variant anywhere poses a potential threat everywhere.” Could this be the mantra for the months and years ahead to justify fortress Britain? Let’s hope not.

GameSharks

Last year GameStop, a humble video games company, traded at under $3 a share. Now its shares are the most traded asset on the planet and worth $330. This is what happens when online memes and stock markets collide as investors pile in looking for fun, a quick buck, and maybe the chance to dip chicken tenders in champagne… Joseph Rachman reports below on one of the year’s strangest stories.
 

Mattie Brignal,
News Editor