[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Paddy1

As I replied to @Sephiroth, I'm not defending the actions or intentions of the EU regarding the movement of vaccines. I find the idea of cutting off the supply of medical supplies to anyone obnoxious.

I was simply trying to determine whether or not Article 16 had been triggered and it seems you're saying it wasn't.

The reason I was trying to nail this down is that a lot of the media state, or at least give the impression, that they did trigger it and for instance, therefore it's now perfectly acceptable for Boris to trigger it. It's the whole basis of the DUPs Trigger Article 16 petition that's doing the rounds.

The misinformation around, particularly on our local media and social media is astounding at the minute.

Edit to add, I did misread your quote which stated "protocol leads to" so thank you for the correction.

The invoking of article 16 was part and parcel of the same regulation to track and control movement of vaccines.
Guardian

The EU’s aborted attempt to trigger article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol could be a blessing in disguise for Northern Ireland.
Its decision to pull the emergency cord on an agreement that had introduced regulatory checks on some products travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland without notifiying Dublin or London was quickly reversed.

BBC

It comes after the EU reversed a decision to trigger an emergency provision in the Brexit deal to control Covid vaccine exports from the EU.
Mr Gove said the bloc had recognised it "made a mistake" in triggering the measure, which could have seen checks at the Irish border.

RTE

The UK cabinet minister has demanded sweeping and swift changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol as the fallout continues from last week's move by the Commission to trigger Article 16 of the Protocol over the issue of exports of Covid-19 vaccines.

Irish Post

The EU attempted to trigger Article 16 in response to an ongoing row over supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine.

Irish Times

However, amid a row over vaccine delivery shortfalls, the EU on January 29th invoked article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol which allows the EU or UK to unilaterally suspend aspects of its operations if either side considers that aspect to be causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
The European Commission reversed the move shortly afterwards.
The mechanism, which was created as a temporary measure, is only supposed to be triggered in the face of “serious” problems, but there is no definition of what “serious” entails.

The Journal(Ireland)

After invoking Article 16 to stop the unimpeded flow of vaccines from the European bloc into Northern Ireland, the EU later backtracked, following condemnation from Dublin, London and Belfast.

4 "triggers" and 2 "invokes" from 6 different non-anti-EU sources. They seem to be in agreement that it was in force and due to be implemented the next day, ie just hours away.

Any invoking of article 16 by the UK, wouldn't be based upon being anti-EU, but of helping NI and indeed Ireland itself.