People line up to get the AstraZeneca vaccine outside La Nuvola convention centre in Rome, Italy on Friday. EU member countries reintroduced the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in their inoculation campaigns. EPA
People line up to get the AstraZeneca vaccine outside La Nuvola convention centre in Rome, Italy on Friday. EU member countries reintroduced the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in their inoculation campaigns. EPA
People line up to get the AstraZeneca vaccine outside La Nuvola convention centre in Rome, Italy on Friday. EU member countries reintroduced the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in their inoculation campa
Warnings from the World Health Organisation on the perils of vaccine nationalism have failed to prevent the scourge spreading. The worst transgressor has been the EU, which has dropped any pretence that it is an idealistic player on the world stage.
In fact the EU is uniquely placed to do great damage to the vaccine rollout across the globe. There is every sign that it is willfully and knowingly doubling down on its threats to stop exports of the vaccine and its ingredients.
The US is celebrating 100 million shots into American arms. With a slightly larger population the EU is languishing in the low tens of millions. Just 9.5 per cent of German and French adults have been immunised. Other countries are vaccine super powers when measured by per capita, most notably the UAE.
Recently bolted from the EU, the UK has rolled out jabs for more than 26 million of its approximately 70 million population.
At one point during its transition out of the EU, the government of Boris Johnson came under fierce criticism for spurning participation in the EU's vaccine procurement system. Now it is racing ahead on its own while Brussels is straining to meet even the modest targets it has set for its distribution project. Britain can still look forward to the remarkable feat of vaccinating its adult population with at least one dose by the end of June.
The founding impulse behind the EU was to heal the wounds of division in the European continent. By coming together and erasing differences, the EU is an explicit project in seeking harmony and the elimination of conflict.
Its behaviour is having the opposite effect. The failings in the vaccine scheme are multiple and successive. The supposed strengths of Brussels' regulatory regime have been its primary weaknesses.
First the EU failed to order a front-loaded schedule of vaccines. We know that its contract with AstraZeneca/Oxford was weaker in crucial legal provisions than the UK version. Europe's medicines agency failed to use the emergency provisions processes for approving the new drugs. It fell weeks behind the UK and the seeds of resentment were sown.
This month's investigation into blood clots led to more than a dozen European countries suspending the AstraZeneca roll out. With all the big countries joining the ban, the populations affected was vast.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson receives his first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in London. Johnson was on Friday trying to ensure that shipments from the Pfizer facilities near Brussels to the UK continue. AFP
Some European leaders tried to paint the move as a prudent measure to maintain confidence in the vaccine process. The argument went that by suspending AstraZeneca, the authorities were demonstrating that reported issues were being taken seriously.
In other words, there could be no truth in conspiracy theories that posited officials were reckless or malicious in promoting dangerous treatments.
Even though some European countries have resumed AstraZeneca vaccinations following an all-clear from EU regulators and the WHO, the suspension has damaged faith in the product. Even Britain experienced cancellations of vaccination appointments from the publicity questioning its safety.
There was a perverse impact, too. Angered Europeans expressed frustration that the governments were yet again throwing up new roadblocks in the vaccination campaign. Some were demanding the restoration of the AstraZeneca access, demands satisfied by a resumption of the rollout by some authorities.
French President Emmanuel Macron at one stage called AstraZeneca 'quasi-ineffective' and gives every impression of wanting to undermine the product, presumably because it was developed in Oxford, not Orleans. Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron at one stage called AstraZeneca "quasi-ineffective" and gives every impression of wanting to undermine the product, presumably because it was developed in Oxford, not Orleans.
The EU position to the UK – and the rest of the world – is you cannot have what we don’t really want.
Mr Johnson was on the phone to the Belgian prime minister on Friday trying to ensure that shipments from the Pfizer facilities near Brussels continue. If these are interrupted, second doses for those already accessing the vaccine will be interrupted.
The EU could be described accurately as an integrated supply chain masquerading as a geopolitical power bloc. Shutting that down has international impact.
The threat to suspend millions of doses going from Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere to the UK is a direct and immediate shadow on supplies. The threat to interrupt the supply chain is even more insidious.
Vaccines are brewed in a biological process that is dependent on chemical reactions between ingredients. Any interruption of one part is a disruption of all.
Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna vaccine labels are seen in front of a US. Pfizer warned last week that US demand was curtailing production of other drugs. Reuters
Rarely has there been such a nakedly selfish set of behaviours put on display during a health emergency
Even in America, this is not a straightforward issue. Pfizer warned last week that US demand was curtailing production of other drugs. As 18 states joined the federal government in setting a May 1 deadline to triple the US vaccinated, the supply crunch will get even worse.
The mendacity of the European leadership in this situation grows ever harder to fathom. They are feeling the heat and want to provide political cover for their failings.
The legacy of this bitter period could take years to erase. Coming at time when there is nothing but friction with Britain over the post-Brexit arrangements, the strategic prospects for Europeans as a whole are calamitous.
This is to say little or nothing about the fact that the Europeans organised a global summit just 10 months ago to display their commitment to universal global access to the vaccine. Rarely has there been such a nakedly selfish set of behaviours put on display during a health emergency.
Vaccine nationalism is an evil. Leaders who aspire to be a global force for good cannot be absolved when they fall in its trawl.
Damien McElroy is the London bureau chief at The National
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Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush
Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”
A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.
“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
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How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
