"Until a few days ago" because the US just recently agreed to send some vaccine to Canada. For the first time. Canada had been getting vaccine produced in the EU. UK is still at 0.
USA has effectively banned export. UK signed a better deal (https://www.politico.eu/article/the-key-differences-between-...), three months earlier, and as a result all AZ vaccine produced domestically in the UK is going to UK Citizens, and they are higher up the queue for AZ product manufactured in the EU. This produces the same effect as an export ban (i.e. domestic production used entirely by country), but is really just the result of competent procurement.
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/01/26/news/interview_...
EU shat the bed by penny pinching. Don't paint incompetence as "humanitarian efforts"
and of course the UK did as well, as the previous poster kindly pointed out:
> This produces the same effect as an export ban
How exactly you achieve being an egotistical sociopath seems a secondary concern.
Now of course both the US and the UK were in extremely dire straits at the tine, with by far the worst outcomes. So I guess that behavior is at least somewhat understandable when you have your back against the wall. Doesn't really make it any better, though.
If you care about equitable access you should be praising the UK, and in particular Oxford, for making its vaccine available at cost, and for having dedicated supply chains already established for poorer nations.
There's still plenty to criticise, but the current framing demonstrates the egocentrism of all of the actors.
The UK: 0%
The US: 0% until a few days ago.
Whereas the UK is getting the doses it ordered, at the EU's expense, and has not actually exported any.
So.
Not exactly the same.
I think your 50% figure is also too high, though it is a high proportion, but these doses are primarily going to wealthy countries.
If the EU were asking for U.K. doses to be routed to other (particularly poorer) countries I would be sympathetic to the position, but this spat is about getting the EU doses, not about equitable access.