We wouldn't have been required to join the EU for the vaccine scheme if we were a member, and were offered to join when we weren't. So I don't see how it is relevant.

Britain handled corona one of the worst in the world, the vaccine thing does seem like a genuine good news story but it’s bolting the door after the old people are all dead. Go back, look at the excess death rates, the extra preparation time the Uk squandered and the rhetoric at the time. Our ruling class have the blood of hundreds of thousands of dead on their hands and it’s astonishing that the entire British public is mollified by getting vaccinated a couple of months early, when the damage is already done.

My point wasn't that COVID was handled well, although I think there are more factors than government at play (It would be pretty hard to argue that the US govt has handled COVID better than the UK, so why is there death rate so much lower?).

My point was that it is plain to see that the vaccine roll out in the EU has been mired by competing interests and slow bureaucracy, which is exactly what the eurosceptics were claiming is wrong with the EU in 2016. Thus the vindication.

Much of the delay that the EU experienced can be attributed to the stricter scrutiny and liability conditions it applied to the vaccines, and the fact that the UK paid more per dose in order to jump to the front of the queue.

If anything, this vindicates the Remainers who claimed that the UK government would become more deregulated and more beholden to corrupt interests.

The EU was faced with an almost impossible set of constraints, either leaving the poorer countries to fend for themselves (and being portrayed as not caring about its ideals of unity and equality), or forcing the richer countries to vastly overpay for the doses of the poorer countries (and being portrayed as a wasteful drain on successful economies).

Of course, it is in the interests of rich countries to help people in poor countries get vaccinated so that they don't become breeding grounds for new variants, especially if those countries have important trade links and free movement with said rich countries, but unfortunately people can get quite selfish during a crisis and not see the bigger picture. This is why we can't have nice things.

The UK got a several-week headstart on the EU, announcing various partnerships, particularly with Oxford/AZ, before the EU even began their process. (Yes, I am aware that purchase orders were signed at different times, but the UK secured funding and supplies back in May last year, when the EU didn't begin its process until June)

Talking about "queue jumping" or "corruption" really seems to be rooted in bitterness or just anti-UK sentiment.

> corruption

Actually I thought I had written "corporate interests", but I guess that was a Freudian slip.

Why can't I upvote this?