Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

‘Australia is my country’: AstraZeneca chief pushed for local vaccine production

"IMPT. all countries - Get guards out of corridors at quarantine hotels and get fresh air and CCTV in – experts"

By Stephen Brook
March 5, 2021 — 7.43am

The global head of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca personally worked to ensure its Oxford University coronavirus vaccine would be made locally because he says Australia is “my country”.

French-born Pascal Soriot, who has been running the global operations of British-Swedish AstraZeneca out of his home on Sydney’s lower north shore and an office next to its manufacturing plant in a Sydney business park, says the vaccine was much more effective than early reports suggested, leading to a 94 per cent reduction in hospitalisations in Britain.

IMAGE - AstraZeneca chief executive officer Pascal Soriot. Edwina Pickles

“Has it been perfect? No. But it’s really been a resounding success,” he says.

On Friday, 90 front-line workers in the South Australian town of Murray Bridge were to be the first Australians to receive a dose of the overseas-made AstraZeneca vaccine ahead of 50 million doses being made by Melbourne biotech firm CSL Limited.

[...]

Mr Soriot praised Australia’s “great pragmatism” in instituting lockdowns at a time many in Europe argued such restrictions could work in China but were impossible in a democracy.

“But the fact is, Australia is as democratic as Europe and has been able to do something that works. And they haven’t made it complicated.

“Europe is a great continent but I have to say, people haven’t really done as well as here in terms of managing this pandemic.”

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/australia-is-my-country-astrazeneca-chief-pushed-for-local-vaccine-production-20210305-p577z2.html

Personally, since Australia is doing so well and Europe is struggling, their blocking the vaccine is kinda understandable.

Australia asks EU to review blocking of AstraZeneca vaccine shipment

By Rachel Clun and Bevan Shields
Updated March 5, 2021 — 1.55pm first published at 12.42pm

Australia has asked the European Commission to review a decision to block a shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses but Health Minister Greg Hunt says the pace of the nation’s rollout will not be affected.

Instead, Australia will rely on one million AstraZeneca doses every week rolling off production lines in Australia from March 22, when phase 1b of the national COVID-19 vaccination program is set to begin.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-unchanged-despite-eu-blocking-astrazeneca-shipment-20210305-p5783e.html