I was getting the impression that pretty much any government decision around COVID-19 was politically driven, not just AZ.

Actually that does not even sound very surprising.

This much was clear in January 2020.

Yeah, sounds about right. Having elections only seems to make these things worse.

I’ll tell you one thing that’s even worse than elections - no elections

Absolutely! But having elections in 2021 makes every Covid-related decision by definition political. And that doesn't help.

I should have made clear that the problem with elections is the timing, not elections in general. Governments should be focused on getting the population vaccinated as fast as possible now, and not worry about their / (re-)election chances.

As soon as you justify canceling elections for one crisis, you can cancel them for any crisis. You'll manufacture a crisis if necessary.

I never said we should cancel elections, quite the opposite. I just certain problems with conflicting incentives in the period before an election. Like weighing decision not just based on data and facts, but on public perception, media coverage and the impact on election chances. Covid had a shitty timing with that.

> But having elections in 2021 makes every Covid-related decision by definition political

Every COVID-related (or other) decision by or about government is political, by definition, independent of election timing.

Election timing may effect the degree to which the people of a democratic state have effectively direct input on an issue whose existence and political salience would not be regularly forseeable, but that’s a very different issue than whether decisions about that issue are “political”.

People often mean “partisan” when they say political. The parties of course control our definition of politics but that’s done with the consensus of party line voters, unfortunately the overwhelming majority of our electorate.

I guess that a decision needed to be made in a timely manner to provide guidelines for those who get their second dose before end of April?

Which would mean mixing vaccines without any trials done on the effects of this. As compared to using a second AZ shot, which has been analyzed and approved. Seems risky to my untrained eye.

And it wouldn't be hte first AZ related recommendation that changes every other week. We had so far:

- not for people over 65 because of underrepresentation in the trials

- not for people under 60 because of blood clots before any studies were finished

- Nobody wants AZ, so we will give it to everyone who is willing to take it

I don't see a strigent strategy here.

It means getting a shot of AZ and two of Pfizer/biontech then. Seems reasonable, and this type of mixing is done all the time.

Can't argue with that. Everything about the AZ vaccine in politics and the media has been a shitshow so far. AZ themselves probably were caught off guard by the initial bad reporting and the wave of negative public reactions. They don't normally have to play the mass media game in their business.

> Slowely I'm getting the impression that a lot of decisions around ~AZ~ the pandemic are politically driven

> a lot of decisions around AZ are politically driven.

Well, in the end "everything is politics" I guess. But one must also see it practically. In places where AZ is a small part of the vaccine strategy, skipping it just means a small delay. It's not a huge or risky decision to either stop using it or use it only in older groups.

In places where AZ forms the backbone of the vaccination strategy such as the UK, it's a much harder decision. The delay imposed by stopping general use of AZ means more deaths because it's a longer delay.

So different countries reaching different conclusions is natural.

Complete nonsense. Do you honestly think the Danish medical authority gives a shit about the squabbling between the UK and Germany over AZ? To the point where they would even condemn people to death and put their careers at risk? I do not find that plausible at all. What I found plausible is that you are too gullible and do not realize that your "impression" was fed to you by the media, who definitely have a political agenda, one way or the other.

There are more poliical angles around AZ than just Brexit. Germany has a bunch of elections this year, for example. A lot of our screwed up Covid measures can be traced to a inner-party conflict about the Chancelor candidate for conservative party, Angela Merkel's government party at the moment. The same party that is up to the neck in a corruption sandal over mask contracts, and quite likely contracts for testing its as well.

No idea how the situation in Denmark is, so. Just one example how vaccines are used for political purposes in Germany, the Bavarian Prime Minister, Söder, and one of the two likely candidates for the chancelor candidacy, just placed a pre order for Russia's Sputnik V. The plan is to produce 2.5 millon doses in a plant in Bavaira by June or so. Never mention that Sputnik V has no EU approval, no study was submitted (what was that again with "faulty" AZ data?) and by June Germany will get up to 260 million doses the EU contracts.

EDIT: I read the 260 million in an article. Numbers from Statista don't back that up. And the EU isn't publishing any schedules. The supply chain guy in me is crying for a year now, first masks, now vaccines. Really frustrating. I really have to get a new job, right I have too much time on my hand it seems...