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Comment by that_guy_iain | Hacker News Reader

People who were pro-Brexit seem to think this one thing proves they were right. They seem to think other EU members will be angry with how the EU are treating the UK in this matter and will also want to leave. This point seems nuts since the EU is basically fighting for it's members vs a non-member, kind of shows why it's better to be with them than againist them. Considering this hasn't fully played out, their constant bragging on the matter seems foolish. Especially considering the EU clearly has more power. The UK is in an extremely vulnerable position overall and seem to be making their position unsafer by the day. The damage the UK goverment is doing to the EU relations will, I suspect, haunt the UK for decades. I suspect if this carries on for a year or so, the UK will end up in a trade war with their closet and largest trading partner during one of the largest recessions ever.

I highly suspect this is going to cost AstraZeneca big.

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> They seem to think other EU members will be angry with how the EU are treating the UK in this matter and will also want to leave.

UK pro-brexit reporting I have seen has been focusing not on other countries (such as Germany) being upset at the EU's treatment of the UK, but the fact that the EU prevented them from negotiating individually and securing vaccines earlier, and instead imposing additional bureaucracy that delayed the ordering of the vaccine by multiple months.

I was talking about the actual people not the reporting. Yea, reporters are not that stupid.

Perhaps you can point to what in particular the UK has done wrong on this vaccine issue.

With the EU introducing export controls against existing (and actually binding) vaccine contracts and now threatening war time-esque controls over production and intellectual property rights of private pharma companies, it is not AstraZeneca that this will cost big, actions like these are much much bigger than uk vs EU

> Perhaps you can point to what in particular the UK has done wrong on this vaccine issue.

This is the thing. The EU is complaining about AstraZeneca and not the UK itself. AstraZeneca is being accused of transferring supplies from EU factories to UK ones and only providing those to the UK.

> now threatening war time-esque controls over production and intellectual property rights of private pharma companies, it is not AstraZeneca that this will cost big,

I think we think differently on this matter. You think Pharma won't want to deal with the EU if their IP isn't protected. It doesn't matter, another company will enter using their IP and make that money anyways. Their IP being protected is only in the interested of the company, if their IP is not protected they will lose out to generic companies. Doesn't matter where it's developed, someone get it and figure it out and produce it where the IPs are not protected. Drug companies have lots to lose.

Especially considering that AZ is half swedish, and the vaccine was mostly funded by other countries, the UK only responded for 1/10 of it.

Oxford uni and the production plant just happen to be on the other side of the fence right now, there is very little to claim it as a British triumph. They need something to hold onto I guess.

If this tweet is correct [1] then the EU hasn't even paid the down payments yet so the contract isn't even enforceable.

[1] https://twitter.com/BarristersHorse/status/13551877383042539...

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