EU vaccine hoarding

[orathaic]

On the 'giving doses to Canada and Mexico' - apparently it is 4 millions doses (1.5 million to Canada, and 2.5 million to Mexico) put of a stockpile of 30 million AstraZeneca dose in the US.

Not exactly what was advertised above.

[flash2015]

Psaki claimed it was only 7 million even though other sources say it is 30 million.

But you are right though. It is still only a small amount. 4M is less than 2 days of vaccine supply for the US.

[Octavious]

Depends on your perspective, I guess. 4 million is 2/3s of the entire retirement age population of Canada which, if you're Canadian, is pretty huge.

[orathaic]

Did you bother to read the bit where 1.5 million was the number going to Canada?

[Octavious]

I didn't bother to read any of it, but I don't see what difference it makes. It doesn’t make 4 million any larger or smaller unless you're using some new form of mathematics I'm not aware of.

[flash2015]

It isn't helping that AstraZeneca keep on screwing up. They screwed up again by sending out a press release showing preliminary results from over a month ago instead of the final results...because the preliminary results looked better for them:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03 ... ss-release

[Octavious]

The EU's vaccine strategy continues to attract criticism from across the board. Today Pfizer's vice president has accused the EU of introducing new rules that have slowed down vaccine production.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 25355.html

Meanwhile the WHO director for Europe has called the EU vaccination programme "unacceptably slow", and demanded "using every single vial we have in stock, now". Statements of the blatantly obvious, perhaps, but hopefully Europe will wake up and take action.

[flash2015]

I called it. Fauci says that the US may not use AstraZeneca:

Asked whether the United States will use the AstraZeneca vaccine doses, he said, “That’s still up in the air. My general feeling is that given the contractual relationships that we have with a number of companies, that we have enough vaccine to fulfill all of our needs without invoking AstraZeneca.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/01/fauci-s ... cine-.html

[flash2015]

The problems with AstraZeneca continue. Australia now advising not to give AstraZeneca to anyone under 50 (the benefit is not worth the risk). I am not sure it will make my parent's happy as it means they will be forced to get AstraZeneca (my father wanted to get the Pfizer one):

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/healt ... 34a5dd71bd