davek
Player Valuation: £150m
The vaccines will help to put a floor underneath the situation and cut down on fatalities, but they are not a silver bullet. The answer can only be through changes to behaviour - far reeaching behavioural changes.
Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!
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peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
I’m thinking of doing a PhD in Behavioural Science with a thesis describing the study, experimentation, results and effects upon the human body, of beer and it’s derivatives.... doddle.....
EU 'fiasco' on N Ireland heaps pressure on Commission
Suspending part of the Brexit deal added to anger over the EU's Covid vaccine roll-out policy.
www.bbc.co.uk
Interesting article.
No, it's not a hit piece, it just sums up the situation.
Found this bit particularly interesting (from both perspectives)
Here again EU politicians seem increasingly irritated with what is now perceived as incompetence at the highest levels of the Commission. Friday's mess-up over the Brexit Northern Ireland agreement is being described to me as "a symptom" of mismanagement of the wider vaccine programme.
"It's like watching a car crash in slow motion," one irate EU diplomat told me. "President von der Leyen is a medical doctor. She wanted to take over the mass purchase of vaccines for all the EU - as a high-profile exercise. Normally health issues are dealt with nationally. This hasn't been a great advertisement for handing over powers to Brussels. I think that's the lesson member states will take away from this."
It should be said that smaller, less well-off EU countries are still relieved the Commission represented them on the vaccine market, otherwise, they say, they'd have found themselves "at the back of the queue".
There is definite EU-wide anger too at pharmaceutical companies, which have delayed vaccine deliveries. Especially AstraZeneca, which is understood to have promised the EU 100 million doses before the end of March. It has now said it can supply only a fraction of that amount.
But by now - when EU governments look at how far ahead the UK and the US are compared to the EU in their vaccine roll-outs - blame is also being directed at Ursula von der Leyen. Some in the EU say privately she may come under pressure to resign.
The Commission stands accused of not investing enough in expanding vaccine production sites. And Bavarian leader Markus Soeder - a favourite to replace Angela Merkel as German chancellor - is far from alone when he lashed out at the Commission last week for being "too late" in concluding vaccine contracts.
AstraZeneca's argument (rejected by the EU) as to why it's honouring its agreement with the UK first, is, it says, because the Johnson government signed on the dotted line three months before Brussels.
So now what?
The priority for people across the EU is protecting themselves and their families. They were promised a vaccine action-plan they're not - or not yet - getting. Which, in turn, is having an impact on domestic politics. Take the Netherlands or Germany, for example, as they head towards parliamentary elections.
Vaccine appointments have been cancelled in France, Portugal, Spain and beyond because of dwindling supplies.
Well, the answer is actually stopping disgusting wet markets or China covering up outbreaks of deadly illnesses, isn't it?
God, he's gonna end up thinking life is all about sex, drugs and violence...
Toast
Player Valuation: £80m
He actually wrecked his tutors head by saying the fruit machine that makes a noise in all 3 cornetto movies is Ooh Ahh Dracula, and we had one in our conservatory.
...and zombies.
Just in the North I think mate, the export controls went into force today.
peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
Excellent, so they have relinquished any moral high ground they may have thought they occupied, while at the same time putting their ‘friend and ally’ into the same category as Russia...nice one.....
Think they will be just be checking the boxes leaving the factories mate.
Is this something the U.K. do I wonder?
Hypothetically how do the U.K. know that 50% of their Wales plant won’t be sent to the EU on Monday? They surely must.
Think it's fair enough they control 'their' product.
Just all comes down to what product belongs to who. It's not the UK's fault that the Commission faffed about. Then again, it's not the EU member states' fault either.
Like you said earlier, sure it'll all sort itself out.
peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
I doubt it. This isn’t the European Soviet Union......
Spadge Vernacular
Player Valuation: £70m
I agree that the vaccine will give us a basis to build from and that there will need to be some behavioural changes but from the perspective of not provoking nature. China and the like need to get a grip on those responsible for the worst kinds of unhygienic behaviour. Countries that have wet markets and bush meat sales and consumption need to crack down and stop these types of practices. We can all take greater responsibility for societal health but sadly, as this pandemic has shown there are some among us that don't care about others. Education will no doubt be the long term answer in that respect.
peteblue
Welcome back Wayne
It is not ‘their’ product. The product belongs to whoever contracted and paid for it.
The Eu reject the notion of when an order is placed. But just imagine if China came in tomorrow and ordered 2 Billion doses of Pfizer vaccine. Would the EU be willing to share any output from the Pfizer factory with China because ‘this is not like being in a queue in a butchers shop’.....
yeah that was my point. If it's product the EU have paid for, then it's fair enough. But if it's product the UK or anyone else has paid for, they have no right.
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