‘Vaccines for all’ – or not, if the EU has its way

Aaaand  –  they’re at it again. ‘Our MSM’, that is. Scanning this morning’s headlines in the paper editions, their top item is hailing another ‘success’, of another vaccine made in the UK. There are rumblings about the ongoing EU-AstraZeneca issue. There are reports that Ms Sturgeon is helping the EU in that endeavour by planning to hand over confidential Scottish vaccine data so that Brussels can keep this vaccine warfare going. What is lacking are the scare stories and graphs about how many covid cases there are in the UK. It couldn’t be because those numbers are going down – perish the thought! 

Meanwhile, as the MSM are screaming with delight over another ‘Union Success ’it seems that they’re incapable of understanding why that row over AstraZeneca is actually about more than just another spat between bureaucrats or indeed EU Commissioners and the UK government. While the EU still hasn’t approved the AZ vaccine – that’s apparently going to happen today – their abysmal lack of urgency is now being veiled by ‘concerns’ that this vaccine isn’t being effective in the over 65s, that there is ‘lack of data’.

Some science editors have pointed out that this apparent ‘lack of data’ is due to the fact that the Oxford scientists acted responsibly and ethically by excluding the elderly from their early clinical trials:

“It is a bitter irony that AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford have found themselves in this situation because they conducted trials in such an ethical manner. From early on in the pandemic it was clear that the over-65s were at far greater risk from the virus, and Oxford did not want to vaccinate older people until they had accumulated a large amount of safety data in the 18-to-55 group. In comparison, other companies took a gamble, went ahead and vaccinated older people faster and earlier.” (paywalled link)

This permitted the German Medical safety commission to say that these data are insufficient and therefore the vaccine isn’t up to scratch. We can hazard the guess that their findings will influence the EU’s EMA decision expected today. It would of course be totally unethical to suppose that this is about anything other than ‘patient safety’! Brexit and ‘punish the UK’ doesn’t come into it, of course not! 

Digging around, and so that you don’t have to, I had to venture to the Guardian where I found this sensible explanation:

“The German scientific body does not have an issue with the data that exists, it has an issue with the data that does not exist. Basically, too few people over the age of 65 were recruited to the trials that have reported so far. AstraZeneca has said about 10% of participants were older people.” (link)

Next, here’s another relevant quote, this time from RemainCentral:

“The German advisory committee published data suggesting clinical trials had not been able to show that it was effective for older patients, in a challenge to Britain’s vaccination strategy. British regulators have acknowledged “uncertainty” about the effects in the older population because of a lack of data. However, they insist it has been shown to be safe and that there is no good reason to think it will stop working once people reach 65.” (link, paywalled)

Sticking with ‘Teh Science’, this next quote from the DT’s article shows why ‘British regulators’ went ahead with their approval:

“Yet there are other ways to determine if a vaccine will be effective in older people. As a proxy for showing that a vaccine is working, scientists look at the level of antibodies and T-cells building up in the blood of those immunised. In October, Oxford announced data showing a strong immune response in the over-65s, similar to younger age groups. The results were hailed as a milestone at the time by the scientific community who understood that it meant that a vaccine was likely to be effective. The data was later peer reviewed and published in The Lancet.” (paywalled link)

October is soo last year, isn’t it! In other words – forget ‘Teh Science’ when it’s about commercial and political interests! After all, who reads The Lancet … ! One might have thought that, given that this is a ‘global pandemic’ and that ‘we are all in it together’, a sensible approach by all those Health entities would be the suggestion to use this vaccine for the young and the Pfizer one for the old. That might accelerate the way out of lockdown restrictions – which the national ‘health’ dictators don’t like at all.

But nooo – ‘one size must fit all’ – globally, and well-garnished with virtue-signalling by international talking heads admonishing governments that ‘vaccine nationalism’ is bad, very very bad. And what do we find next? Mighty Brussels, so intent on showing the EU is speaking with one voice, like any other ‘nation state’, is planning to do just that:

“Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine could be blocked from entering Britain from the EU within days after Brussels said it had to respond to shortages emerging in member states. Following reports of a lack of doses across the bloc, the European commission announced plans to give national regulators the power to reject export requests. The development raises concerns over the continued flow of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, for which the UK has a 40m-dose order, from its plant in Belgium.” (link)

That comes under ‘we messed it up and you in the UK will pay for it’. Brussels is happy to hive off such decisions to national bodies while publicly denigrating ‘vaccine nationalism’. There’s one EU group which has issued a timely warning:

“The European federation of pharmaceutical industries and associations warned that the commission plan could lead to a breakdown of global supply of vaccines. “Global supply chains are key to delivering vaccines to protect citizens … Risking retaliatory measures from other regions at this crucial moment in the fight against Covid-19 is not in anyone’s best interest,” the industry group said.” (link)

It’s in the interest of anti-Brexit bureaucracies though, isn’t it, while it’s of course unthinkable that political considerations might influence the EU’s decisions. The fact that Brexit UK might be more successful in the mass vaccination ‘exercise’ than the mighty EU member states mustn’t be mentioned either, though our friends at facts4eu do – look at their report with the usual impressive graphs.

As if that weren’t sufficient, as if the EU needed another alibi to demonstrate that AZ is a dubious, untrustworthy entity, there’s this:

“Belgian health authorities revealed they had been sent into an AstraZeneca factory in the town of Seneffe where doses of its vaccine are being made. The commission requested the inspection due to doubts over the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm’s explanation for its shortfall in deliveries to the bloc. ‘We want to see if what we are being told is correct or not,’ one EU official said. […] Brussels has raised questions about whether doses from the factory have secretly been shipped to Britain.” (link)

It is a tawdry spectacle by Brussels. It’s “we don’t believe you because you’re (part) British”. The misinterpretation of the drug trials’ scientific data provides only a meagre argument for the EU to justify their dilatory work in approving the AZ vaccine. In addition though they’ll use a bureaucratic way of permitting single EU states to forbid the export of vaccines to the UK, contract or not. That refers to the Pfizer vaccine which is also manufactured in Belgium.

Perhaps we don’t need to be unduly worried though – after all, there’s that ‘new Union vaccine’ coming, called ‘Novavax’, about which today’s MSM are so jubilant. It still needs to be approved and won’t be ready before March – but it’s manufactured in Teesside:

“The vaccine is the first to show clear effectiveness against the Kent variant, with about half the cases in the final-stage trial of 15,000 people caused by the new strain.” (link, paywalled)

All well and good – but who knows if Brussel’s next step won’t be to restrict exports to the UK of materials and substances needed to manufacture that vaccine. After all, this whole issue is now a political plaything, exacerbated by hefty, global financial and business ‘interests’.

I leave you with an example of Labour and ‘Our MSM’ working hand-in-glove to suppress free speech. Even a sitting MP cannot be allowed to criticise the numbers provided by ‘Our Sacred Cow’ – not even when that remark was made in November 2020:

“A Conservative MP has refused to apologise after he lent support to anti-vaccination campaigners and claimed that NHS statistics were manipulated. […] In an interview from November obtained by Sky News, Sir Desmond [Swayne] said: “It seems to be a manageable risk, particularly as figures have been manipulated […]” (link, paywalled)

You might very well say ‘so what, this was said last year’ – but here’s the delicious reason why this has now surfaced in ‘Our MSM’:

“Angela Rayner, deputy Labour leader, has written to Amanda Milling, co-chairwoman of the Conservative Party, calling for an investigation into Sir Desmond’s conduct.” (link, paywalled)

Aaah! Now it’s ‘news’! See how Labour, how ‘Our MSM’ pick up some ancient remarks – after all, “we” can’t remember what happened two days ago, never mind what was factually correct two months ago – and waste time on crying ‘apologise’ and demanding an ‘investigation’. Not even a sitting MP is safe from the covid stasi!

Does anyone still think that this whole ‘pandemic’ is about ‘our health’ and not about a power play by vested interests to destroy our democratic system?

KBO!