Me too. It’s like the Twilight Zone.

During the 4 years there was a change of PM and many members of the cabinet, the illegal amendment to the NI protocol and huge delays in between 'talks'.

I spend my time between Thailand, Cyprus and Portugal, I was lucky enough to 'retire' early in my mid 40s. Retirement for me was being able to do a lot more of what I wanted to do.

Pro China, EU & Palestine

The Pfizer/Biontech vaccine was wholly developed by German registered and owned Biontech. Pfizer were brought in for their testing capacity, so yes, it's an EU developed vaccine marketed as a joint venture for production, as large amounts are also produced in Biontech's German production facilities.

Here's a good link on the Biontech development of the vaccine and its history together with the involvement of Pfizer for large scale testing:

[Link]

Regarding contracts, one contract has nothing to do with another. They are separate legal documents that are legally binding to deliver a certain amount of product on a certain date.

Still, it's clear that the EU has helped by exporting both UK developed and German developed vaccines to the UK to the tune of around 21 million doses, that's fact. What's also fact is that the UK hasn't exported any vaccine doses and used it's entire holdings on its own population.

Edited by Orange1290 (05 Apr 2021 2.19pm)

Pro China, EU & Palestine

This. He clearly doesn’t get it and ignores the bits he cannot answer.

Vaccines cannot hide the decimation of the UKs exports to the EU, it's primary trading partner.

And the EUs exports to the UK are unaffected due to the extension in place until at least January next year.

The UKs self interest over vaccines is a gamble which has worked so far, but that's all.

And UK businesses are clear we are not talking about 'teething' but the reality of leaving the EU.

Imperialists sell developing countries finished goods, thereby putting themselves into the driving seat on the commercial relationship.

The alternative approach is to encourage the other countries to develop their own indigenous capability to develop and market a good.

In the case of AstraZeneca it is working with suppliers in 15 countries. The UK has also made advance orders from suppliers in multiple other countries which will have given an early boost to their indigenous capabilities.

The early authorisation and adoption of each vaccine has been a significant driver for worldwide production. The UK should soon authorise four more vaccines.

The EU sponsored the production of the BioNTech vaccine. The US sponsored Moderna.

It should be noted that the AstraZeneca vaccine was specifically developed to be very cheap to support developing countries. That is the only reason Oxford went with them. AZ has committed to not making a profit from the pandemic. It seems the other countries may be trying to recover or to profit from their investments. That may explain the delay in authorisations of some vaccines.

In addition, those that paid most largely got earlier deliveries as they supported the R&D through their high price. The EU pays the lowest price per dose for the AZ vaccine - $2.15.

In contrast, Israel paid $23.50 per dose of the Pfizer vaccine. That now appears to have been money well spent.

It is surely moot to criticise the UK for not insisting that AZ breaks its UK agreement to benefit the EU countries. France has used 72% and Germany 68% of the AstraZeneca jabs they have received, according to the latest figures European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The Netherlands has used only 44% of its supply.