France claims UK will struggle to source second Covid jabs

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

France claims UK will struggle to source second Covid jabs

EU will not be blackmailed over Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, says foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

Daniel Boffey in Brussels
Fri 26 Mar 2021 17.19 GMT

The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close political ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claimed that the UK’s success had been built on driving forward with first jabs without having secured the second doses necessary for full vaccination.

The intervention came as the EU and the UK are locked in talks about the fate of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs produced in a factory in the Netherlands over which both sides are laying claim. Sources said that despite conciliatory language earlier in the week over finding a solution the two sides were struggling to find common ground.

In an interview with FranceInfo radio, Le Drian suggested that the EU should not have to lose out on the doses to help Britain with a problem of its own making. EU officials and top-rank politicians have repeatedly said they will block any export request by AstraZeneca.

“The UK is proud to have vaccinated many people with the first dose, but they will have a problem with the second dose,” Le Drian said. “And we are fully vaccinated with two doses, not one. Today we have the same number of fully vaccinated people in France and the United Kingdom.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/26/france-uk-struggle-source-second-covid-jabs-eu-blackmail

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. I don't think it's a major problem

The latest figures which show which vaccines have been used are here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions/coronavirus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting

By 14th March, 10.9 million Pfizer 1st doses had been given. Another 1.3 million 2nd doses had been given, mostly Pfizer. Archived versions of that page show the Pfizer 1st dose number had only gone up from 10.7 million 2 weeks before that, indicating they knew they had to reserve the rest of that vaccine for 2nd doses - Ursula von der Leyen said about 20 million Pfizer doses were shipped from the EU to the UK, and 1 million AZ. Stopping Pfizer at that point matches with the NHS reminder to vaccinators that the Pfizer "supply is finite".

In that same 2 weeks, the number of AZ 1st doses went from 9.7 million to 13.7 million.

So it looks like they stopped giving Pfizer 1st doses when they saw they might not get any more. They could probably do with another 2 million of them (a total of 40 million were ordered).

By now, 29.3 million 1st doses have been given, so about 18.4 million AZ. It is said AZ can deliver about 2 million doses a week in the UK, if everything goes right (and we do see 4 million were given in 2 weeks from the above figures). That can cover the required 18.4 million 2nd AZ doses in 12 weeks, with a bit to spare. The Moderna vaccine has been authorised, and 17 million doses ordered, if the manufacturer can deliver it (nearly all made in the USA).

If no more doses come from the EU, the rate of 1st doses will have to slow down, but not stop (and they've already said they're not going to start on the remaining under 50s before May). The main problem would be the last 2 million Pfizer doses, which they'll need for the 2nd half of May.