Tuesday 16 March 2021

EU leaders really have screwed up their vaccine programme

When the Covid history is written, European leaders will be blamed for causing hundreds if not thousands of unnecessary deaths by failing to get their act together with the vaccine programme. The latest farce is over their sudden alarm about the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine because a handful of people who have had this jab have gone on to develop blood clots and some have died. All the real experts, including the UK vaccine regulators, the World Health Organisation and anyone with a PhD in anything linked to vaccination programmes have said that the blood clots are unrelated and happen unfortunately to some people. Well I agree that sounds a little weak. If a blood clot occurred soon after someone had received the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine you might well ask if there could possibly be a link. But the fact is millions of people have had this particular vaccine and 99.whatever per cent have been fine, apart from a flu-type reaction for 24 hours which experts say is normal. I had the Pfizer jab and had no after-affects whatsoever. The point is, all the EU countries seem to be focusing their doubts and warnings and worries on the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine. No mention of any of the other brands. So does that mean they have a thing about the Oxford one because it's from Brexit Britain or have they examined all the vaccines and concluded, rghtly or wrongly, that blood clots have only happened with the Oxford one? And is this true? I may be wrong but I think there is buried at the back of their minds a little prejudice against the Oxford jab because it's Brexit British. Oh dear, I don't want to sound anti-EU because I'm not remotely. But before this latest kerfuffle there was all that fuss about whether the Oxford jab could be given to over-65s and Angela Murkel saying she wouldn't have the jab because she is over 65 anzd went for the Pfizer one instead. But that all turned out to be rubbish and eventually the EU backtracked and said ok the Oxford vaccine was fine for the older ones too. These two setbacks plus the blatant failure of the EU machine to get its engine working quickly enough to start ordering vaccines in the first place has meant that the 27 EU countries are two or three months behind a lot of other countries including and especially the UK. I feel sorry for the people of all these countries who are wonderng when the hell they are going to get vaccinated. And in the meantime a third surge of infections has begun and only a small percentage of the populations have been protected with a jab. With the suspension of the Oxford vaccine it will inevitably mean even fewer doses for the waiting populations. Not a good advert for European efficiency. And you can bet that in a week or so the likes of Merkel and Macron will come out and say that after all the Oxford vaccine is safe.

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