Save morethan justmoney. Our newSustainableEquity Service helpsyou invest directly intocompaniesthat makeapositiveimpact on our world. Email [email protected] subject title ‘savemore’ to getstarted. Capital at risk. When Russell Cicely Tyson’s Themysterious Hartyslapped trailblazing origgins of the my bottom career coronavirus SUZI QUATRO P10 OBITUARIES LASTT WORD P52 P42 6FEBRUARY2021 |ISSUE 1317 |£3.99 THE BESTOFTHE BRITIS Thevaccine wars An embarrassmentfor theEU? Page2 05 9771362 343166 ALL YOUNEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THATMATTERS theweek.co.uk 2 NEWS The main stories… What happened What the editorials said Vaccine wars The Commission’s vaccine programme has provided “the best possible advertisement for Brexit”, said DieZeit (Hamburg). Ursula von der Leyen,the European “It is acting slowly,bureaucraticallyandina Commission president, defended the slow roll- protectionist manner. And if something goes out of Covid-19 vaccines acrossthe EU this wrong, it’s everyone else’s fault.” Its blunders week, and suggested that nations which had are causing serious damage not just to the EU’s moved faster had compromised on “safety and citizens –bydelaying the vaccine roll-out –but efficacy”. The Commission, which negotiated also to its image in the world. The decision to the bloc’s vaccine purchases, has been greatly invoke Article 16 of theNorthernIreland criticised over delays to delivery. By midweek, protocol, overriding Brexitarrangements, the EU had administered just three doses per was a“serious misjudgement”, said The Irish 100 people, compared to ten in the US, and Times. It’s extraordinarythat von derLeyen 15 in the UK. Jens Spahn, the German health should have waded into this ultra-sensitive area minister, said it wouldbe“at least another ten without even consulting Dublin. tough weeks”before vaccine shortages eased. The vaccine programme has shown Britain Last week,the Commission became embroiled at its best(see page24), and the EU“at its in arow withAnglo-Swedish drug maker Von der Leyen: under pressure worst”, said TheObserver. “In order to AstraZeneca, which had announcedthat it demonstrate EU ‘solidarity’ and the power could supply only 31 million of the80million doses of the of thesingle market”, all 27 memberstates were involved in Oxford vaccineorderedbythe EU forthe first quarter. The the acquisitionprocess.Inevitably, this slowed it up:anEU EU imposed restrictions on vaccine exports to othernations, contract with AstraZeneca, ready in June, wasn’t signed until including the UK – adecisioncriticisedbythe WHO. The August (three months after the UK’s). Other orderswere held Commission also tried to impose controls at the Irish border, up amid haggling overpriceand liability issues – mere details by triggeringaclause in the Brexit agreement. Both Boris in a pandemic. Europe’s medicines regulator has also Johnsonandthe Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed “dithered”, too: the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was only “deep unhappiness”, and the decision was abruptlyreversed. approved last week.The EU must “get its house in order”. What happened What the editorials said The coup in Myanmar This was “not a coupd’état in theconventional sense”, said The Times. Themilitary already pulled the strings in Myanmar’s armed forces stagedadramatic Myanmar.Its generals drafted the 2008 early morning coup this week, returning the constitution by which the country is governed; fledgling democracy to military rule. Min the army is guaranteed aquarter of seats in Aung Hlaing,anarmy general, assumed parliament and controlsthree of themost control of the country and declaredaone- powerful ministries. But the militaryhad failed year state of emergency on Monday,hours to grasp howunpopularithas become, in the after AungSan Suu Kyi and other members wakeofSuu Kyi’s triumph in the country’s of the ruling NationalLeague for first democratic election in 2015. And even Democracy (NLD)party she leads had been though observersdeemed November’s elections detained in pre-dawn raids. In November, fair, saidthe South ChinaMorning Post, the the NLD had trounced arival, army-backed generalscried foul. Alas, the depressing turn of party in ageneral election which military events that has followed“rolls back the clock” and opposition figures claimed was rigged. on yearsofhard-wonpolitical reforms. Suu Kyi: “trumped-up” charges The coup –inacountry which had been But much has changed since the army first took ruled by the military for50years until 2011 –was swiftly power in Myanmar in 1962, said the FT. The West is better condemned by foreign leaders, including Boris Johnson. able to putpressure on rogue regimes with targetedsanctions, Neither Suu Kyi nor her loyal ally, PresidentWin Myint, and the nation is now steeped in pro-democracy activism. have been seensince themilitary tookcontrol; theyboth “The flameofMyanmar’sdemocracy burnt in darkness for face criminalcharges widely condemned as trumped-up. years. Evennow,itmay nothave been entirely extinguished.” It wasn’tall bad ASwedish nurse has been AJewish man has bequeathed selected to be the sole asizeablechunk of his fortune The number of people attendee at Scandinavia’s to the French village whose diagnosed with the flu has biggest film festival this residents hid him and his family plunged by 95% in England this year. The Gothenburg film during the Second World War, year, to levels not seen for 130 festival has chosen to go despite the risk to their own years. In the second week of ahead despite the lives. Eric Schwam, who died January –usually the season’s pandemic, and selected aged 90 on Christmas Day, is peak –GPs reported aflu rate of Lisa Enroth from 12,000 believed to have left s2m to 1.1 per 100,000, compared with applicants to spend a the remote mountain village of afive-year average of 27. In the week on the remote island Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, which same week, at atimewhen of Pater Noster watching gave shelter to 3,500 Jews there are usually thousands of every film. “In healthcare, during the war. Schwam and serious cases, zero flu patients Iseem to have spent ages listening, testing and consoling. Ifeel his family arrived in 1943 and were admitted to hospital. like I’m drained of energy,” she said. “The wind, the sea, the stayed until 1950. In his will, he Experts credited better hygiene, possibility of being part of atotally different kind of reality for a said the gift was an expression good flu jab uptake and social week –all this is really attractive.” She will keep adaily video diary of his gratitude, and suggested distancing for the drop. that will appear on the festival’s website. it be spent on youth services. COVER CARTOON: NEIL DAVIES THE WEEK 6February 2021 …and how they were covered NEWS 3 What the commentators said What next? The EU’s target of vaccinating 70% of all adults across the bloc by the summer looks “remote”, AstraZeneca haspromisedto said Ido Vockinthe New Statesman. AstraZeneca, Pfizer andModerna are all reporting delays supply an extra nine million to Europe’s supply.One Frenchvaccine, from Sanofi,has been delayed; another has failed.So vaccine doses tothe EU by the continent’s hopesincreasingly rest on the one-jabvaccine produced by Johnson &Johnson, March, says BBC News –still which maybereadybyApril. But even so, Brussels “still has astrong argument in favour of its only abouthalf of the initial vaccineprocurement strategy”: without the EU’s joint scheme, the vaccine warfare playingout target. It says itwas only ever between the EU and UK might now be playing out between all 27member states.“Going it obligedtomake its “best alone” would have been a disaster,particularly for the smaller, poorer nations. reasonable efforts” tosupply the jab. That doesn’t excuseits behaviour, said Robert TaylorinThe DailyTelegraph. “The EUwas so disgusted that Britain was zooming along inthe vaccine fast lane” that it threatened the Both France and Germany NorthernIreland settlement it had “spent thelast four years preaching about”. European have said they won’t givethe leaders have also irresponsibly promoted baseless rumours about theefficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine AstraZeneca jab,while simultaneously demanding more of it from British factories, said Tom to over-65s, citing a lack of Chivers on UnHerd. Nevertheless, it’s crucial that “we keep the EU sweet”, rather than starting data for the age group. areal war. “Vials, reagents, nucleotide bases and so on are all made in different places, and if Belgium has restricteditto countries stop cooperating, itsuddenly gets muchworse for everyone.”Hence, presumably, the under-55s, and Switzerland complete absence of “crowing” or angry rhetoric from the British Government,said Dominic has declined toapprove it Lawson in The Sunday Times. No oneissaying,“we told you so”, or“hands off our vaccine”. for now. However, new trial evidence published in The “The last year has shown that even in this globalised age,the nation state trumps the market,” Lancet suggests the vaccine said JamesForsythinThe Times. In the past,itwas often assumed that the location ofyour provides 76% protection manufacturing didn’t matter. Therecent scramble for vaccines and PPE has shownotherwise. after just one jab, and82% There are only afewdozen large-scalevaccine bioreactors in theworld. Six are based here, after asecond shot 12 weeks which is whyvaccinescanbemade at such pace. Around two-thirds of our PPE is now being later. The results alsoshow madeinthe UK. But in the long run, these new trends pose potential risks for Brexit Britain,a