UK in talks to join EU coronavirus vaccine plan

[DimPrawn]

A simpler explanation is that Johnson is an incompetent idiot.

I'd put him on par with 1% of Gordon Brown's competency.

[Old Greg]

I think this explains a lot about the decision making (or lack of it)

Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms | World news | The Guardian

A simpler explanation is that Johnson is an incompetent idiot.

[DimPrawn]

Most of Boris and his cabinet have immunity against Covid-19 now anyway, as they all had it. So why should they care?

I think this explains a lot about the decision making (or lack of it)

Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms | World news | The Guardian

One coronavirus patient described in the paper, a 55-year-old woman with no history of psychiatric illness, began to behave oddly the day after she was discharged from hospital.
A neuroscientist explains: the need for ‘empathetic citizens’ - podcast

She repeatedly put her coat on and took it off again and began to hallucinate, reporting that she saw monkeys and lions in her house. She was readmitted to hospital and gradually improved on antipsychotic medication.

[Old Greg]

Immunity may not last long, especially in mild cases that majority of them had

Let's hope.

[AtW]

Most of Boris and his cabinet have immunity against Covid-19 now anyway, as they all had it. So why should they care?

Immunity may not last long, especially in mild cases that majority of them had

[Eirikur]

Most of Boris and his cabinet have immunity against Covid-19 now anyway, as they all had it. So why should they care?

[elsergiovolador]

Of drive home ideology whilst folks die without the medicine they need.

Nothing new here. Blocking access to certain medication is a conservative speciality.

[scooterscot]

Bear with me while I show off my FT subscription...

To be a fly on the wall in no. 10. What's it to be? Save face? Of drive home ideology whilst folks die without the medicine they need. Tough one...

The UK is in talks to join an EU plan to secure supplies of potential coronavirus vaccines in an important test of the co-operation required to tackle international emergencies after Brexit.


London is assessing whether the advantages of the European bloc’s bargaining power to strike deals with international drugs companies outweigh the broader political desire to sever ties with Brussels, UK officials said.


The negotiations come as an international battle escalates to buy up coronavirus remedies, often long before their effectiveness has been confirmed. The US has poured billions of dollars into Covid-19 vaccine development and purchased much of the world’s supply of remdesivir, a coronavirus treatment produced by the US pharmaceuticals group Gilead.


The EU plans to spend billions of euros on its own vaccine purchase plan and is in talks with Johnson & Johnson of the US, while Britain has already struck its own bilateral deal with UK-based AstraZeneca.


The UK was invited to join the EU vaccine scheme under the Brexit withdrawal agreement in force since it left the bloc in January, which gives London the obligation to finance — and the right to be involved in — all projects under the EU’s 2014-2020 budget.

Subscribe to read | Financial Times


Top comments:

"London is assessing whether the advantages of the European bloc’s bargaining power to strike deals with international drugs companies outweigh the broader political desire to sever ties with Brussels, UK officials said."


Brexit in microcosm, and the stupidity of so many of the 'arguments' for it encapsulated right there.


You really can't make this stuff up.....

Oh yes.. .with bells on.

Interesting how the EU reaches out to the UK whilst the US gobbles up as much medicine it can buy without a second thought for old Blighty.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the US isn't such a reliable ally to the UK as some would wish.