Brexit

[xilman]

¿Que?

[Nick]

EU firms refuse UK deliveries over Brexit tax changes

Apparently, the UK inland revenue has now decided it is a global revenue:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55530721

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Nick

Apparently, the UK inland revenue has now decided it is a global revenue:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55530721

Interesting. Presumably this applies to, say, Austria too. How have the Australians been managing all this time? Or the New Zealanders for that matter?

[pinhodecarlos]

National lockdown once again until half term in February.

[xilman]

Covid vaccination program: UK started early December. NL started 6 January.

The EU co-ordinates the purchase of vaccines for all its 27 member states.

The European Commission says this approach avoids competition between EU countries, as they can all access vaccines on the same terms, irrespective of their size or purchasing power. It says negotiating the purchase of large quantities also secures reductions in costs.

Once the EU buys the vaccines, it distributes them between countries on the basis of their population.
What is the problem?

The EU approved the purchase of 300 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in December.

On 6 January, it approved a second vaccine: the US-made Moderna vaccine.

Other countries that have so far been more successful in vaccinating their populations approved the Moderna or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine earlier.

In addition, Pfizer/BioNTech was not able to supply the 12.5 million vaccines it promised the EU by the end of 2020, due to supply chain issues.

A tiny proportion of the EU's 448 million people have been vaccinated so far: around 964,000 out of the population of 447 million, according to the Our World in Data website, which has figures for 24 out of 27 EU countries.

The UK did not take part in the EU vaccine scheme although it could have done (until the end of 2020).

At the time, the government said it was opting out because it felt it wouldn't be allowed to continue its own negotiations with potential suppliers and wouldn't have a say on the price, volume and date of possible deliveries.

The UK was the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (and rolled it out several weeks before the EU). So far, it has vaccinated around 1.3m people.

(From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52380823)

[ldesnogu]

Originally Posted by xilman

Covid vaccination program: UK started early December. NL started 6 January.

Yeah thanks to brexit, NHS now has a lot of money. Oh wait...

[Nick]

Originally Posted by xilman

Covid vaccination program: UK started early December. NL started 6 January.

Yes, the Dutch vaccination program has been slow to get started.
Out ministers had to admit this a few days ago in parliament.

[ldesnogu]

Originally Posted by Nick

Yes, the Dutch vaccination program has been slow to get started.
Out ministers had to admit this a few days ago in parliament.

I'm not sure France is doing any better: we had ~5k after a week of vaccination, that's crazy

[xilman]

Originally Posted by xilman

Quite right too, IMO. False negatives exist.

If the situation were reversed (UK were relatively free of a markedly more infectious version of COVID-19 and it were rampant in the Netherlands) I would strongly support additional restrictions on Dutch entry.

Consistent with my quote above, here is an account of what is being considered for Brazil.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55660552

Portugal now added, presumably because many Brazilians travel via Lisbon.

[pinhodecarlos]

This starting to be a game who manages to block whom more.

Edit: BA doesn’t not fly directly to north of Brazil, must be done by Lisbon with TAP (Recife, Fortaleza, all this sex tourism places...haha)

[xilman]

Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos

This starting to be a game who manages to block whom more.

Edit: BA doesn’t not fly directly to north of Brazil, must be done by Lisbon with TAP (Recife, Fortaleza, all this sex tourism places...haha)

TO some extent. To be fair, it is a serious high-stakes game.