The point about the EU vaccination purchase, or almost anything else the EU does, is that it needs to go through a lengthy process of being approved by all the countries involved. Were it a commercial company investors would be running for the hills. It is slow in a quick world.
Our scientists pushed the government in all the right directions on which vaccines to purchase. We were purchasing before the vaccines actually existed because our scientists were up with what was being developed. The EU was only entering the purchasing stage when vaccines were reaching the approval stage, months behind the UK.
Individually EU countries did better than us coping with the virus because they have better and better-funded health services AND BECAUSE THEY REACTED INDIVIDUALLY, not as a bureaucratic collective. Every winter our hospitals hit 90% capacity and if an epidemic hits they begin to be overwhelmed. Germany has more beds, more doctors , more staff and runs at a much lower capacity so that when the unexpected hits it can cope. France is much the same. Spain is better too. That said none of the EU countries is a travel hub in quite the same way the UK is. If an infection arises somewhere it is almost certain to hit the UK PDQ. Covid was unusual in that it gave us some time and a good warning by having a good go at Italy first, but the government was still copping a deaf ear at that point. Repeated over the Indian Variant.
The fact remains that bigger and bureaucratic are negatives. The EU had massive buying power over vaccines. It should have held all the cards. Losing out was like France being knocked out of the World Cup by Guam or Christmas Island. There are many good things about the EU, but EU funding is a myth. You puts your money in and they decides where it gets spent ....... and they ain't either very accountable or efficient, even if they are likeable.
And that's what I worry about with Chesterfield too. Everyone seems nice, but we haven't done such nice things and I wonder who is accountable and how.
The trouble with Lockdown etc is that it isn't a solution. It's all right shouting stop the world, but there's nowhere to get off. If I never go out I won't catch Covid, but I will die alone.
I AM looking at walking uphill to any new home in Matlock. Good advice.
By the way the EU DID very generously offer the UK the chance to be part of its vaccine-buying programme. We turned down that offer I think because scientists and civil servants were convinced they were close enough to the research and development globally to come up with the right answers ........ which they did. As to why we did worse than the rest of Europe concerning Covid deaths, it is more than a matter of a relatively under- resourced health system compared to European neighbours, it also has to do with the way many of our communities are crammed together to live so near to the edge of poverty that £90 a week sick pay, if forced to self-isolate, would be a choice of not paying the rent, or not eating. I'd argue we are more like the USA than the continent of Europe - and they were dying like flies across the Atlantic too.
Our scientists pushed the government in all the right directions on which vaccines to purchase. We were purchasing before the vaccines actually existed because our scientists were up with what was being developed. The EU was only entering the purchasing stage when vaccines were reaching the approval stage, months behind the UK.
Individually EU countries did better than us coping with the virus because they have better and better-funded health services AND BECAUSE THEY REACTED INDIVIDUALLY, not as a bureaucratic collective. Every winter our hospitals hit 90% capacity and if an epidemic hits they begin to be overwhelmed. Germany has more beds, more doctors , more staff and runs at a much lower capacity so that when the unexpected hits it can cope. France is much the same. Spain is better too. That said none of the EU countries is a travel hub in quite the same way the UK is. If an infection arises somewhere it is almost certain to hit the UK PDQ. Covid was unusual in that it gave us some time and a good warning by having a good go at Italy first, but the government was still copping a deaf ear at that point. Repeated over the Indian Variant.
The fact remains that bigger and bureaucratic are negatives. The EU had massive buying power over vaccines. It should have held all the cards. Losing out was like France being knocked out of the World Cup by Guam or Christmas Island. There are many good things about the EU, but EU funding is a myth. You puts your money in and they decides where it gets spent ....... and they ain't either very accountable or efficient, even if they are likeable.
And that's what I worry about with Chesterfield too. Everyone seems nice, but we haven't done such nice things and I wonder who is accountable and how.
The trouble with Lockdown etc is that it isn't a solution. It's all right shouting stop the world, but there's nowhere to get off. If I never go out I won't catch Covid, but I will die alone.
I AM looking at walking uphill to any new home in Matlock. Good advice.
By the way the EU DID very generously offer the UK the chance to be part of its vaccine-buying programme. We turned down that offer I think because scientists and civil servants were convinced they were close enough to the research and development globally to come up with the right answers ........ which they did. As to why we did worse than the rest of Europe concerning Covid deaths, it is more than a matter of a relatively under- resourced health system compared to European neighbours, it also has to do with the way many of our communities are crammed together to live so near to the edge of poverty that £90 a week sick pay, if forced to self-isolate, would be a choice of not paying the rent, or not eating. I'd argue we are more like the USA than the continent of Europe - and they were dying like flies across the Atlantic too.