Waging war over vaccines can only end in tragedy for Britain and the EU

[Soph0571]

An escalation into a full-blown “vaccine war” between Britain and the EU would be a disaster for both on many levels. The production of vaccines depends on intricate multinational supply chains. Take the Pfizer dose. Ingredients for that vaccine are shipped from the UK to the company’s plant in Belgium before some of the finished product is exported across the Channel. A round of beggar-my-neighbour export bans will be self-defeating. The EU’s problems will deepen, while the government will find it harder to realise its ambition to get a shot into every adult by July.

Vaccine nationalism is already a dimension of this crisis. It would set a terrible example to the world if countries that advertise themselves as mature, sophisticated and internationalist democracies were to unleash a vaccine war in Europe. Britain and her near neighbours are going to have to live and work with each other long after Covid-19 has become history. The UK’s security and prosperity still depend in great part on what happens within the EU. It cannot be in the EU’s interests to have permanently toxified relations with such a substantial country on its border. A vaccine war would be a conflict without a winner, only many losers.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/21/waging-war-over-vaccines-can-only-end-in-tragedy-for-britain-and-the-eu]

Did you see Mairead McGuinness, EU Commissioner for Financial Services on Andrew Marr this morning? I don't see this being resolved anytime soon, the very fact that the UK is slinging vaccine nationalism at the EU when they have exported over 30 million doses outside the EU borders and we have not exported a single dose means the very definition of vaccine nationalism is under extreme strain. And as Rawnsley says - I am para phrasing - the EU has no trust in the UK under Boris - they don't owe us anything. Mairead says she wants common sense to prevail, but with the Boris cabinet that seems impossible, and coupled with the really rather shit roll out across the EU the mud slinging and threats will continue.

[Cosmo Blues]

1. As an outsider

Logically I can see how the EU's roll out of the vaccine could have been rocky because although it's a union they are still separate countries with different leaders. Even in America we know Boris and his cabinet had to be dragged kicking and screaming to real science and they being brexiteers with ingrained hostility towards the EU doesn't help