Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mpweiher 1912 days ago
> The UK government provided a lot of the money to AZ to build out the local vaccine supply chain and factories

So did the EU.

> Also remember the vaccine was developed by Oxford using a significant amount of UK government funding

And Biontech was developed with German funding. Did Germany insist on exclusivity? Maybe we should have...
2 comments
vanilla-almond 1912 days ago
- The vaccine is mainly funded by Oxford University and AstraZeneca (AZ) . The UK Government also provided £65.5m.

- Most of the AZ vaccine for the UK is being made in the UK. AZ have said none of their vaccines have been sent from the EU to the UK.

- AstraZeneca said its agreement with the EU allowed the option of supplying Europe from UK sites, but only once the UK had sufficient supplies (due to the contract the UK negotiated) .

- A drop in confidence in the AZ vaccine means there are lots of unused vaccines. France and Germany have used only about half of the AstraZeneca jabs they have received, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

- 10 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been exported from the EU to the UK.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56483766

https://www.politico.eu/article/the-key-differences-between-...

link
mavhc 1912 days ago
Are there really a lot of unused vaccines in Europe though? What are the equivalent numbers for other countries? I submit it's a supply chain thing, there's a week's worth of vaccines moving from the factory to the humans
link
helij 1911 days ago
No there are not. Those are second doses. In EU they 'reserved' second doses. UK for example went on to vaccinate as much as possible. That's why there will be a delay now of a month or two.
link
mpweiher 1912 days ago
> France and Germany have used only about half of the AstraZeneca jabs they have received

Now why might they have only used half so far, of a vaccine requiring two jabs?

They are keeping the other half for the required 2nd jab.

For some bizarre reason, they are not confident about timely delivery of future supplies.

link
inglor_cz 1912 days ago
Unfortunately the drop in consumer trust has been enormous. [0] And humans lose trust faster than they regain it.

After the wild "let us suspend AZ and let us restart it in two days" ride, it will be much harder to get AZ into arms of European patients. Even here in the Czech Republic, where AZ wasn't suspended, the reverbations in the public are stark and all kinds of half-baked conspiracies started circulating. (An example: "Germans want to get rid of a junk vaccine and force it on us Slavic untermenschen, while they will only use more expensive and better Pfizer for themselves.")

[0] https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2...

link
mpweiher 1911 days ago
(a) Consumer confidence wasn't high in the first place

(b) This wasn't without reason. AZ has significantly more severe side effects and is less effective.

(c) That said, I'd certainly still take it, it is highly effective at preventing the worst outcomes.

(d) That said, the whole "consumer confidence" narrative is a canard. Its effects don't come anywhere near the effect of the delivery shortfalls. It's so totally ridiculous that it does make me wonder where it is coming from.

link
jackdh 1911 days ago
> So did the EU.

How much did they fund before the initial order? I can't seem to find a source. All the results just talk about their down payment not the initial funding like the UKs £65m. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56483766

link