3 ms·
> USA and UK waved a lot of responsibilities. Brit here. I’m not intending to be argumentative, you’re right, but I’d prefer to put it a bit differently. The B
by simonh 5y ago
> USA and UK waved a lot of responsibilities.
Brit here. I’m not intending to be argumentative, you’re right, but I’d prefer to put it a bit differently. The British government chose to take on responsibility for ordering and using the vaccines. We did our testing, contracted the drug companies to do a job to standards we set, and paid them for it. If a mistake was made, it’s on us. I have no problem with that.
Now, if the drug companies lied, or failed to live up to their contracts, that’s a different story. But if they did the job we asked in good faith, we’ll, that’s fine.
Contrast with the OxyContin debacle in the US. Those people lied, concealed evidence, conspired and goodness knows what else. They deserve the full force of the law. I am in no way advocating blanket liability waivers for drug companies.
- libertine 5y agoI don't doubt the intentions, to be honest this is a chip on the shoulder that I have from that period. Back then I tried to wrap my head around the whole delays of vaccines, when some propaganda were saying that the EU was being "cheap" and bargaining for cents, costing time, with the famous Boris quote, paraphrasing, "we have a better deal". Only to find out that one of the major setbacks that caused the delay was in fact liability terms. The EU wanted to share liability so that pharma was not completely off the hook, and had some skin in the game - and I'm fine with this decision, even it costed some weeks of delay. I'm also fine with USA and UK decisions, it's just the framing and propaganda that was despicable... it wasn't a better deal, just different terms and demands. I think this whole coronavirus period made me sick of politics.