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> If an additional $10B-$100B could result in additional production of mRNA vaccine, it would have been delivered by governments if not by investors. No. No. N

> If an additional $10B-$100B could result in additional production of mRNA vaccine, it would have been delivered by governments if not by investors. No. No. No. Not only is there no guarantee that it would have been delivered by governments, there is a major counterexample affecting hundreds of millions of people: the European Union. The EU tasked a specific body, the European Commission, to negotiate vaccine purchases for the entire bloc at once. The commission approached vaccine negotiations like a trade deal, because they usually negotiate trade deals, and ended up extracting terms that would have been good for a trade deal. They refused to go easy on the manufacturers, and thus "saved" themselves many billions — billions that they would have been much better off sacrificing (to make the negotiations faster, instead of taking months) or outright spending (to speed up production). https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/02/03/how-europe-dodges-responsibility-for-its-vaccine-fiasco https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/02/03/how-europe-dodge... https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-europe-tripped-in-covid-19-vaccine-race-11612293218 https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-europe-tripped-in-covid-19-... https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-struggle-pfizer-biontech-astrazeneca/ https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-s... Now they are tripping over themselves in an attempt to salvage the mess they made, issuing ill-considered threats to seize production that has been pledged abroad, rather than trying to speed things up. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/01/vaccine-protectionism-endangers-the-global-fight-against-covid-19 https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/01/vaccine-...

Ulrich2 6y ago
Please note that the EU is the _only_ Western country that is currently exporting vaccines to the world. It is the US + UK that are blocking all exports. Even Canada gets its vaccines from the EU, since the US is not sending them any. So yes, clearly the EU has made mistakes (fully agree with the 1st part of your post), but they had good intentions and it is not as bad as you make it sound.
- brigandish 6y ago
  > It is the US + UK that are blocking all exports No. The UK government publishes a list of medicines blocked for export[1] and the vaccine isn’t on the list. The EU is solely to blame for being at the back of the queue and are the only state I know of to threaten blocking exports. [1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/933527/medicines_that_cannot_be_parallel_exported_from_the_UK.csv/preview https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
  - blub 6y ago
    Not much difference between using 100% of the locally produced doses locally and blocking it for export. Let's rephrase the question: which countries are the US and UK currently exporting vaccine to and in which quantities?
    - smorephism 6y ago
      Every country they promised to, which is the core of the matter. It's one thing to be upfront from the start about how you're going to independently produce vaccine for yourself first, ensuring nobody plans on receiving your production. It's another entirely to promise to export and then later threaten to hold back.
      - blub 6y ago
        Ok, and what is the list of those countries and the quantities that they're getting? Because from your second sentence it read like an awfully short list if nobody's expecting on receiving vaccine.
      - fennecfoxen 6y ago
        > It's one thing to be upfront from the start about how you're going to independently produce vaccine for yourself first It's not even that, it's being up front about paying all the local manufacturers to make vaccines for you first.
        6y ago
kabes 6y ago
I agree that they shouldn't have tried to squeeze the last cent out of it, while the pandemic is costing much more. But would it really have changed things if they didn't? There wouldn't magically have been more factory capacity and it's not like the UK/US would allow for a substantial part of their capacity to be exported. Then there was also the unfortunate failure of the Sanofi vaccin and the late arrival of the Jannsen vaccin which was just really bad luck for the EU.

Ulrich2 6y ago

Please note that the EU is the _only_ Western country that is currently exporting vaccines to the world. It is the US + UK that are blocking all exports. Even Canada gets its vaccines from the EU, since the US is not sending them any. So yes, clearly the EU has made mistakes (fully agree with the 1st part of your post), but they had good intentions and it is not as bad as you make it sound.

brigandish 6y ago
> It is the US + UK that are blocking all exports No. The UK government publishes a list of medicines blocked for export[1] and the vaccine isn’t on the list. The EU is solely to blame for being at the back of the queue and are the only state I know of to threaten blocking exports. [1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/933527/medicines_that_cannot_be_parallel_exported_from_the_UK.csv/preview https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
- blub 6y ago
  Not much difference between using 100% of the locally produced doses locally and blocking it for export. Let's rephrase the question: which countries are the US and UK currently exporting vaccine to and in which quantities?
  - smorephism 6y ago
    Every country they promised to, which is the core of the matter. It's one thing to be upfront from the start about how you're going to independently produce vaccine for yourself first, ensuring nobody plans on receiving your production. It's another entirely to promise to export and then later threaten to hold back.
    - blub 6y ago
      Ok, and what is the list of those countries and the quantities that they're getting? Because from your second sentence it read like an awfully short list if nobody's expecting on receiving vaccine.
    - fennecfoxen 6y ago
      > It's one thing to be upfront from the start about how you're going to independently produce vaccine for yourself first It's not even that, it's being up front about paying all the local manufacturers to make vaccines for you first.
      - 6y ago

kabes 6y ago

I agree that they shouldn't have tried to squeeze the last cent out of it, while the pandemic is costing much more. But would it really have changed things if they didn't? There wouldn't magically have been more factory capacity and it's not like the UK/US would allow for a substantial part of their capacity to be exported. Then there was also the unfortunate failure of the Sanofi vaccin and the late arrival of the Jannsen vaccin which was just really bad luck for the EU.