Ben Chu Profile picture
27 Jan, 5 tweets, 2 min read
A part of the problem in judging this question is a major lack of transparency over the commercial agreements between pharma companies and states.

Despite involving hundreds of millions of $£€ of public money most of these contracts have not been published...
So when claims are made by the two sides in a row like this about breach of contract/terms of agreements etc it's impossible for analysts and journalists to check them.

That's obviously deeply unsatisfactory and actually undemocratic...
When AstraZeneca claims its agreement with the EU was to provide vaccines on a "best efforts" basis how do we know that's accurate?

When the EU claims AstraZeneca has failed to fulfill its delivery schedule how can we check what that delivery schedule actually was?

And so on
The argument from public authorities for not publishing full vaccine supply contracts and info (and note this is made by UK too) is it would impede the ability of states to negotiate good deals with other manufacturers.

That was always dubious & is surely even less tenable now

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More from @BenChu_

29 Jan
What's happening to UK unemployment?

Is the situation perhaps worse than it seems?

A short thread...🧵1/
Official estimates of employment (from the @ONS labour market survey) and the payrolls data (from @HMRCgovuk) both showed a sharp decline in 2020...2/ Image
But the fall in the payrolls data was notably larger.

It suggested around 241,000 more job losses by October 2020 than the official survey data does.

That's a pretty significant divergence, equivalent to around 0.7% of the overall UK labour force...3/ Image
Read 12 tweets
26 Jan
Is the European Union guilty of dabbling in vaccine nationalism?
💉🇪🇺

The EU Commission's dispute with AstraZeneca over vaccine deliveries shortfalls is clearly big and serious.

But what should a fair-minded person make of the row?...
The essential situation is this.

AZ claims it’s had some vaccine production problems at its EU plant & while it accepts the EU has a right to be aggrieved at the shortfall, it say the EU's reaction - threats of legal action and blocking its exports - is way over the top...
The EU Commission says it has not had enough credible information from AZ to explain the shortfall and, moreover, seems to distrust the company...
Read 9 tweets
22 Jan
Thread on why Brexit has disrupted e-commerce and why it matters more than you might think

🧵💸💻

We’re getting lots of reports of people being hit by unexpected VAT charges and delays on their online deliveries when the vendor is in Europe.

Why is this happening?....1/
UK customers buying goods from relatively small EU vendors before Brexit could pay their VAT at the point of transaction under the EU’s distance selling regulations.

And, importantly, these vendors could charge the local rate of VAT and deal with their own tax authorities....2/
Since 1 Jan our online buyers don’t benefit from these EU regulations.

The EU vendor now has to register with HMRC and charge UK VAT in order to ship to UK (a big hassle and many won’t bother) or ship the item to the UK and let the buyer pay the UK VAT owed upon receipt...3/
Read 12 tweets
21 Jan
When can the UK economy safely re-open?

A thread

🧵💉💸🔓

Reports suggest Downing Street is looking at easing restrictions in England from early March, with a return to the regional tier system...1/
But question is: will the vaccination programme have reduced pressure on the NHS sufficiently by March to enable restrictions to be eased by then?

Or could this be another policy fiasco like delaying November lockdown or Xmas Day re-opening?... 2/
The COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group @COVID19actuary has modelled the impact of the government achieving its 14m vaccination target on hospitalisations and deaths.

The results are a mixed bag....3/
covid-arg.com/post/how-soon-…
Read 14 tweets
19 Jan
ONS infection survey suggests 1 in 8 people in England have had Covid (around 12 %)

ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati… Image
16.5% in London
16.8% in Yorkshire and Humber Image
Assuming 12% of 56 million England population infected at end of December (6.7 million) and registered England Covid deaths of around 66,000 (excess deaths higher at 72,000) at that point - suggests infection fatality rate of around 1%
Read 5 tweets
2 Jan
Thread on how easy it is to get tricked into haemorrhaging money from your bank account after an online purchase – and why financial regulators seem to be behind the curve on this.🧵💸💻

Forgive the personal story, but I think it's relevant...1/
I’m pretty careful with my money online - regularly checking my pension, combing my online bank statement for suspicious transactions, pruning unwanted subscriptions etc...2/
I’d describe this as financial hygiene – and would advise everyone to do it.

Yet it’s not always enough.

While looking through a list of transactions on my online account before Xmas I noticed a £15 payment to something called "WLY*COMPLETESAVE.CO.UK" ...3/
Read 25 tweets

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