International COVID-19 Megathread

[Tender Branson]

Embarrassing that Germany lags behind, given Pfizer/Biontech vaccine was actually developed here. The federal government and EU need to get their act together quickly. Also, the malefactors need to speed production up.

At least it seems numbers of daily cases are dropping again, while deaths remain at a high level. From today on, Germany has a stricter mask mandate, requiring medical or FFP2 masks in transportation and stores, some states also require said masks in working places. These masks not just protects others, but yourself. However, they're more expensive and can only be worn for a couple of hours.

We have the same requirement starting today.

[Mike88]

Portugal: The government admits they could ask for international help and are considering sending some patients to other countries.

Also, the government changed the vaccine program to include government official at all levels, from national to local and they will start being vaccinated next week. However, there's already controversy as some Health workers organizations, like the nurses, refused that government officials should be vaccinated before all the staff in the NHS is vaccinated.

[StateBoiler]

I see no way the Olympics are getting held. A "senior Japanese government official" was anonymously sourced by the London Times saying they don't think it's being held, they're just putting on a good face and acting like it will move forward so that the IOC will be compelled to give them 2032. All parties then came out and predictably said they will take place as scheduled. They've all said it's this year or bust, so if it's bust that's the first Olympiad canceled since the 1940 and 1944 ones. All Olympic athletes globally would become the sad sports tale we've been told time and again about the Team USA athletes that didn't go to Moscow in 1980.

If that's the case of no 2020 Games and Tokyo gets 2032 as a make good, I think the IOC are going to really rue doing a double handout of 2024 and 2028 at the same time, because they're not going to have an open Games to have bidding on for another 15 years.

If we do go to the point of the Games will be held, there's going to be no fans and you're just going to be shuttling athletes in and out, so what? That's a drastic investment loss for the Japanese government, although at least they're a rich country and can afford it. Can you imagine if this was Rio or Athens? Also, if the games are held somehow, no way we're having a 100% participation rate, have to imagine a bunch of countries won't send athletes.

[Meclazine for Israel]

I think Australia ordered the wrong vaccine.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-26/astrazeneca-denies-report-vaccine-less-effective-in-elderly/13091806

This one needs to be kept at -70 deg C.

[CumbrianLefty]

Astonishing f*** up by German paper Handelsblatt over the AZ vaccine.

(so who briefed them on this, and why?)

[StateBoiler]

Things have the potential to get very ugly on the Vaccine front soon, I fear. There is a lot of anger in Europe at Pfizer and AstraZeneca, as both companies have now said that they are not going to be able to deliver as many doses to the EU as originally agreed. So far so bad, but what riling distrust particularly, is the fact that AstraZeneca at least is both refusing to give a proper reason (only blaming vague "problems in the European supply chain") and only cutting commitments to the EU - other Countries, in particular the UK, are not affected for some reason. Making things worse is simmering anger/distrust over Brexit. The EU will now introduce a advance registration requirement for all exports to third countries, and some member states, such as the German Health Minister and many in the EU parliament are for calling for restricting or banning the exports of Vaccines entirely.

Clearly it is unacceptable for AstraZeneca to not keep it's commitments to the EU but to other countries without a proper reason, and if they cannot, they should be held legally accountable considering how much the EU invested in them for research and production capacity. But doing things like this is extremely irresponsible in my view. Mixing politics and vaccines is never a good idea, but especially not like this. If Europe would block the export of Biontech/Pfizer from it's European plants, other Countries would (such as the UK with AstraZeneca) respond entirely tit-for-tat, and crucial supply chains for the Vaccine distribution everywhere would be disrupted. It is a lose-lose for everyone. And it's feels like a cheap attempt to distract for the failures of the Government in the Vaccine rollout in many European countries, especially in Germany.

This is what I read at another message board as far as EU and AstraZeneca from the Twitter of a journalist named Robert Peston who the poster said has worked for the BBC, the Independent, the Times, the Financial Times, and has a political show on ITV.

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1354019140084916225

Robert Peston
@Peston

The important difference between AstraZeneca's relationship with the UK and with the EU, and the reason it has fallen behind schedule on 50m vaccine doses promised to the EU, is that the UK agreed the deal with AZ a full three months before the EU did - which gave...

AZ an extra three months to sort out manufacturing and supply problems relating to the UK contract (there were plenty of problems). Here is the important timeline. In May AZ reached agreement with Oxford and the UK government to make and supply the vaccine. In fact Oxford...

had already started work on the supply chain. The following month AZ reached a preliminary agreement with Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy, a group known as the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance, based on the agreement with the UK. The announcement was 13 June. BUT the EU...

insisted that the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance could not formalise the deal. The European Commission insisted it should take over the contract negotiations on behalf of the whole EU. So were another two months of talks and the contract was not signed till the end of August...

What is frustrating for AZ is that the extra talks with the European Commission led to no material changes to the contract, but wasted time on making arrangements to make the vaccine with partner sites. The yield at these partner sites has been lower than expected. The problem...

is in the course of being sorted. AZ say it is working 24/7 to make up the time and deliver the quantities the EU wanted. It says its contract with the EU - as with the UK - was always on a "best effort" basis, because it was starting from scratch to deliver unprecedented...

amounts for no profit. AZ is not blaming the EU. But it does not understand why it is being painted as the "bad guy" given that if the deal had happened in June, when Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy wanted it done, most of these supply issues would already...

have been sorted. A pro-EU source at the company says "I understand Brexit better now".

PS According to AZ, the EU claim that it pays less to AZ per dose, and that is why AZ "works harder for the UK than for the EU", is "completely incorrect". It charges the same price to all buyers, wherever they are in the world, subject to small adjustments due to local costs

[palandio]

If Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands all were ready, but certain other countries were obstructing, I'm really wondering why there isn't more finger-pointing going on in the EU. Or maybe I know, because then people might ask if the expansion went too far and certain countries should never have been let in. The EU per se is a good thing, but this is really very bad optics. Maybe we need a new core EU. Or we accept that not everything needs to be done via the official EU channels and that we can do things with Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and everyone who wants to join on that particular thing. And if Mr X from country Y doesn't want the vaccine, then good luck.

[StateBoiler]

If Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands all were ready, but certain other countries were obstructing, I'm really wondering why there isn't more finger-pointing going on in the EU. Or maybe I know, because then people might ask if the expansion went too far and certain countries should never have been let in. The EU per se is a good thing, but this is really very bad optics. Maybe we need a new core EU. Or we accept that not everything needs to be done via the official EU channels and that we can do things with Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and everyone who wants to join on that particular thing. And if Mr X from country Y doesn't want the vaccine, then good luck.

"Wasted time on making arrangements at partner sites" sounds like governments wanting the vaccine made at extra sites inside their borders. Should be easy to figure out who by looking at where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured.

The one place I can readily find having issues manufacturing the vaccine are a Novasep plant in Belgium who are less than half their expected production. AstraZeneca announced this 4 days ago.

From the Guardian in the past hour. EU lawsuit threat:

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has urged pharmaceutical companies to honour their commitments to supply coronavirus vaccines, citing the massive public investment in research and development.

“Europe invested billions to help develop the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines, to create a truly global common good,” she said at a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum. “And now, the companies must deliver. They must honour their obligations.”

EU member states could take AstraZeneca to court for breach of supply contracts if it did not honour its schedule, Latvian foreign affairs minister Edgars Rinkevics said. “The possibility should be evaluated, and it should be coordinated among the EU countries.”

The EC will finalise a proposal by the end of the week to require pharmaceutical firms to register their vaccine exports from the EU, and says it has no plans to impose an export ban.

[palandio]

If Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands all were ready, but certain other countries were obstructing, I'm really wondering why there isn't more finger-pointing going on in the EU. Or maybe I know, because then people might ask if the expansion went too far and certain countries should never have been let in. The EU per se is a good thing, but this is really very bad optics. Maybe we need a new core EU. Or we accept that not everything needs to be done via the official EU channels and that we can do things with Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and everyone who wants to join on that particular thing. And if Mr X from country Y doesn't want the vaccine, then good luck.

"Wasted time on making arrangements at partner sites" sounds like governments wanting the vaccine made at extra sites inside their borders. Should be easy to figure out who by looking at where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured.

The one place I can readily find having issues manufacturing the vaccine are a Novasep plant in Belgium who are less than half their expected production. AstraZeneca announced this 4 days ago.

That's not how it sounds to me at all. To me it sounds like: "If it wasn't for the meddling by the EU commission (and maybe meddling by some individual states) we would have known how much to produce earlier and hence we could have made arrangements with partner sites earlier." No direct connection between meddling and partner sites.

[StateBoiler]

If Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands all were ready, but certain other countries were obstructing, I'm really wondering why there isn't more finger-pointing going on in the EU. Or maybe I know, because then people might ask if the expansion went too far and certain countries should never have been let in. The EU per se is a good thing, but this is really very bad optics. Maybe we need a new core EU. Or we accept that not everything needs to be done via the official EU channels and that we can do things with Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and everyone who wants to join on that particular thing. And if Mr X from country Y doesn't want the vaccine, then good luck.

"Wasted time on making arrangements at partner sites" sounds like governments wanting the vaccine made at extra sites inside their borders. Should be easy to figure out who by looking at where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured.

The one place I can readily find having issues manufacturing the vaccine are a Novasep plant in Belgium who are less than half their expected production. AstraZeneca announced this 4 days ago.

That's not how it sounds to me at all. To me it sounds like: "If it wasn't for the meddling by the EU commission (and maybe meddling by some individual states) we would have known how much to produce earlier and hence we could have made arrangements with partner sites earlier." No direct connection between meddling and partner sites.

If they were meddling just to meddle, that's worse because it shows it was just a power play. At least if you were meddling to spread out the manufacturing to more sites, there's a local jobs argument.

[palandio]

If Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands all were ready, but certain other countries were obstructing, I'm really wondering why there isn't more finger-pointing going on in the EU. Or maybe I know, because then people might ask if the expansion went too far and certain countries should never have been let in. The EU per se is a good thing, but this is really very bad optics. Maybe we need a new core EU. Or we accept that not everything needs to be done via the official EU channels and that we can do things with Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and everyone who wants to join on that particular thing. And if Mr X from country Y doesn't want the vaccine, then good luck.

"Wasted time on making arrangements at partner sites" sounds like governments wanting the vaccine made at extra sites inside their borders. Should be easy to figure out who by looking at where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured.

The one place I can readily find having issues manufacturing the vaccine are a Novasep plant in Belgium who are less than half their expected production. AstraZeneca announced this 4 days ago.

That's not how it sounds to me at all. To me it sounds like: "If it wasn't for the meddling by the EU commission (and maybe meddling by some individual states) we would have known how much to produce earlier and hence we could have made arrangements with partner sites earlier." No direct connection between meddling and partner sites.

If they were meddling just to meddle, that's worse because it shows it was just a power play. At least if you were meddling to spread out the manufacturing to more sites, there's a local jobs argument.

As far as I know there were discussions similar to the one you describe in the beginning between Germany and France. Germany wanted Curevac, France wanted Sanofi, but they (and Italy and the Netherlands) very quickly agreed to order from both and from several other firms. Then came the EU commission and wanted to do the contracts. And then came certain stingy EU member states that didn't understand why the EU should order billions of vaccine doses and give the surplus to Third World countries. That's how I understand it.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Mhmm....

AstraZeneca pulls out of EU meeting about vaccine supplies

Pharmaceutical company AstraZenca has pulled out of a scheduled meeting with European Union officials to discuss vaccine supplies, an EU official says.

The company behind one of the world's top Covid vaccines is in the middle of a row with the EU over supplies of the jab.

The EU had ordered 600 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine ahead of expected approval for roll-out across the bloc.

But the company says it has supply issues and is trying to solve them as quickly as possible - it says the late EU decision to purchase doses left little wiggle room for supply.

The EU official says the bloc continues to ask AstraZeneca to explain why vaccine deliveries to the EU have been cut.

The EU is behind some others in the race to vaccinate populations, including Israel, the UK and the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-55823064

[rosin]

Mhmm....

AstraZeneca pulls out of EU meeting about vaccine supplies

Pharmaceutical company AstraZenca has pulled out of a scheduled meeting with European Union officials to discuss vaccine supplies, an EU official says.

The company behind one of the world's top Covid vaccines is in the middle of a row with the EU over supplies of the jab.

The EU had ordered 600 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine ahead of expected approval for roll-out across the bloc.

But the company says it has supply issues and is trying to solve them as quickly as possible - it says the late EU decision to purchase doses left little wiggle room for supply.

The EU official says the bloc continues to ask AstraZeneca to explain why vaccine deliveries to the EU have been cut.

The EU is behind some others in the race to vaccinate populations, including Israel, the UK and the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-55823064

Some more development in the story:

Whether the meeting originally was cancelled or not (AZ denies it were), both parts now agree that it will be held this evening at 18:30 CET

It has been rumored that a possible solution of the conflict might involve the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi cooperating with AstraZeneca to add more vaccine production to lessen the vaccine shortcomings.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/01/27/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-boss-hits-back-at-eu-criticism-over-supply-delays

[StateBoiler]

So who takes the fall here in the Commission? This isn't really a scandal, it's more a governmental failure making bad decisions in an existential crisis, a Neville Chamberlain moment.

[Mike88]

Germany is already sending medical experts to Portugal because of the out of control outbreak of Covid-19:

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1354619015633776645

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Astonishing f*** up by German paper Handelsblatt over the AZ vaccine.

(so who briefed them on this, and why?)

Turns out this is the data they were shown:

https://twitter.com/olivernmoody/status/1354782232876085249

Someone forgot to check, however, that the 95% confidence interval goes from -1405% efficacy to 94% efficacy...

[CumbrianLefty]

If anything, that makes it still worse.

The kindest reading is staggering statistical illiteracy.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

If anything, that makes it still worse.

The kindest reading is staggering statistical illiteracy.

Not very surprising where journalists are involved!

[parochial boy]

Considering the context, you can't help but notice the timing of this story though

[Mike88]

Portugal update: The Spain-Portugal border will be closed. New cases and new deaths reached another record: 16,432 new cases and 303 new deaths. Hospitalizations, however, drooped from 6,603 to 6,565.

[Tender Branson]

Good news out of Israel:

Israel has released encouraging data on the effectiveness of a CoV vaccine after vaccinating hundreds of thousands of people. Of 715,425 Israelis who received two doses of the Biontech / Pfizer compound, 371 tested positive for the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health said today. That is 0.04 percent of those twice vaccinated. 16 sick people had to be treated in the hospital. Pfizer had given the effectiveness with 95 percent.

An intensive vaccination campaign has been running in Israel since December 19. According to official information, 2.8 million citizens have already received the first and around 1.5 million citizens have already received the second dose. The small Mediterranean country has a total of more than nine million inhabitants. The government wants to vaccinate all residents of the country who are older than 16 years by the end of March.

According to information from Oxford researchers, Israel vaccinates faster than any other country in the world. According to a chart on the Our World in Data website, Israel leads with 49.13 doses of vaccine per 100 people. In absolute terms, however, the USA, China and Great Britain lead.

https://orf.at/stories/3199373

[President Johnson]

Some more good news. Anti-body cocatails are effective against mutations (at least this study finds):

https://twitter.com/Regeneron/status/1354399692491206657

[Tender Branson]

There’s Covid, but no flu this winter season.

For the first time in several decades (!), not a single flu case was reported in Austria so far.

Previously, there were seasons with 3.000 to 8.000 flu deaths, which would be similar on the high end to the current 6.000 deaths since November due to Covid ...

Covid is still more deadly than the average flu season (6k so far during winter vs. about 3-4K for an average to high flu season).

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-01/29/c_139707575.htm

[StateBoiler]

Of all the places in the world I expected to go ultra-nationalist in this Covid debacle, the European Union would've been pretty far down my list. They published their AstraZeneca contract and Reynders is now talking about a vaccine war with the UK.

(Side comment: how is a guy that previously demonstrated he was incapable of making a functioning government in Belgium promoted to EU Justice Commissioner? If you can't get Flemings and Walloons to work together, how can you get 27 countries to work together?)

[Cassius]

The EU is a fundamentally nationalist enterprise. Their nation just doesn’t exist yet.