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AstraZeneca NL factory is not producing any vaccines. People are trying to figure out why.
@Dave Keating:
Some astonishing new revelations here.The #AstraZeneca facility in Netherlands isn't producing any vaccines for EU because AZ hasn't submitted paperwork to start.With the UK contract blocking export from the 2 UK sites, EU is getting supply from only 1 of the 4 sites promised https://t.co/9UboEcdold
Sorry for the editorializing and the twitter thread link, I couldn't find a good quality article that wasn't paywalled. This is the best one from the Financial Times.
To summarize: One of AstraZeneca's factories has not submitted any paperwork for approval to distribute their vaccine. AZ signed its contract with the EU over six months ago.
There is clear negligence on AZ's side, but also probably pretty severe policy failure and enforcement failure on the EU side. I am holding off judgement until the story develops further, but I seriously hope we see some consequences for those responsible. AZ has been one of the main drivers behind the EU's failed vaccination campaign and if it comes down to this kind of willful negligence or even sabotage, we're approaching crimes against humanity territory.
This whole AZ thing is such a mess. Honestly no idea what to think at this point, about multiple issues. The supply issues, the "blood clot" issue (for which, I mean, the entire nation of the UK is a guinea pig for the vaccine, and it seems like you'd see any issues by now; on the other side, multiple countries have paused its usage, surely that can't just be politics), and hot damn, the discourse on this is incredibly toxic. I suppose Brexit combined with all the FUD is just causing a UK vs EU war on the internet.
The blood clot thing is absolutely a non-story. If you look at 200 million people you're going to see blood clots, and we don't see any increase in people, of any age, who've been vaccinated.
The consequences of not vaccinating people are well known.
It would seem insane that short term effects like that could occur and you'd not see a statistically significant increase in the UK, where millions have received the AZ vaccine by now. Forget the fact that it passed Phase 1 Safety trials ages ago.
Idk, the blood clots make no sense, but Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, and now Germany and France have temporarily halted usage of the AZ vaccine because of it. Have they just gone mad?
What is happening?
I know, right? At least this is one case where Belgium isn't being insane and is clearly saying: there are no statistical anomalies, and even if there were, at this point the benefits outweigh the risks.
I'm not so sure. The reporting seems to focus around a cluster of really weird cases of thromboembolism. Weird and lethal. Multiple european agencies report unusual case numbers for a very rare form of thromboembolism. I'm no doctor, but
and
That doesn't sound like "there's nothing there" but more like "what is there is very profoundly weird, and definitely not normal, but it is rare enough that it doesn't fudge the numbers of thromboembolic events overall.
Apparently, we're dealing with a subform of thromboembolic event here, and the statement you would like to see highlighted in the EMA statement is actually at least as misleading, because it suggests (as you say) that there's no evidence. The way the first statement reads to you seems like a more accurate read of the situation.
They haven’t applied for approval of their vaccine yet in the US, and there seems to be an assumption that it’s because they’ve been told the application wouldn’t be accepted.
Possibly something like that might be happening for this factory? I have no idea. Without any reports of what’s really going on, we can only speculate.
You’re saying “clear negligence” and “willful negligence” and I don’t think there is that level of proof yet?
That doesn't really make sense given that they're already manufacturing and distributing vaccines elsewhere in the EU. And EU officials seem to be saying that all that's missing is the paperwork and they'll be fast-tracked.
Well, hopefully we'll see more reporting that will clear things up.