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LONDON – Britain says it intends to start injecting people with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as early as Monday, after becoming the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine following large-scale clinical trials.
The UK government approved the use of the coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday after the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced it had completed its safety review.
The decision marks a significant milestone in the battle against the pandemic, although challenges remain for poorer health systems in launching the vaccine.
“The MHRA recommendation was reached following an extremely thorough and scientifically rigorous review of all evidence for the safety, efficacy and quality of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine,” said MHRA chief Dr. June Raine at a conference. virtual print Tuesday.
“The data showed that this vaccine is 95% effective. It was effective in all groups that were given the vaccine during the study, regardless of age, sex, race or country they lived in. ”
Raine explained that the approval was completed so quickly because regulators had implemented a process known as “continuous review”.
“A progressive review can be used to complete the evaluation of a promising drug or vaccine in a situation where time is of the essence in the shortest possible time. But – and this is a very important point indeed – that doesn’t mean the corners have been cut. Not at all, “Raine said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a cautionary note at a press conference on Wednesday.
“There are huge logistical challenges. The virus has to be stored at minus 70 degrees [Celsius]. Each person needs two injections three weeks apart. So, it will inevitably take a few months before all the most vulnerable are protected – long cold months. Hence, it is all the more vital that as we celebrate this scientific achievement, we are not carried away by excessive optimism or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over. It isn’t, ”Johnson said.
Pfizer is expected to deliver 800,000 doses of the vaccine to Britain in the coming days. The government has so far ordered 40 million doses, enough to vaccinate 20 million people.
Nursing home residents will be first in line, along with frontline health workers. The elderly and clinically vulnerable people will be next. Healthy adults will likely have to wait several months.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the British University of Reading, told VOA that scientists do not yet know whether the vaccine will generate so-called herd immunity in a population.
“We still don’t know if this vaccine will only prevent disease, that is, getting sick, or if it will also prevent people from contracting the virus and passing it on to people,” he said.
Convince a skeptical audience
“There is so much we don’t know about and there hasn’t been enough evidence. There hasn’t even been enough time to find out if these vaccines are safe, ”said Samantha London, a 38-year-old musician living in Brixton, a neighborhood in south London.
Brixton resident colleague Abi Babalola said she would take the vaccine if offered.
“For sure my family and I will take it, because we have to get back to normal. I’ve had enough, “he said.
Poorer health systems lack the storage capacity to keep the vaccine at minus 70 degrees Celsius. Dr Nonhlanhla Rosemary Dlamini, representative of the World Health Organization in Malawi, said it could be some time before a vaccine is launched.
“The type of equipment that many countries have, including Malawi, is not that type of cold chain equipment. So, while we’re doing our evaluation, let’s look at that. But, however, we still don’t know what kind of vaccine will arrive in the country, “Dlamini said.
Several developed nations have ordered millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. US regulators will meet on December 10 to discuss emergency approval for Pfizer shots, and again a week later to discuss another vaccine manufactured by Moderna.
Another vaccine developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford also reported initial positive results. It can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures.
Clarke is optimistic that the fight against the coronavirus has reached a significant milestone.
“By spring, I think we will be on track to return to normal. I don’t expect we’ll be there enough by then, but we’ll be on our way. And I think the rest of the world can expect to see other vaccines that might be more useful, maybe they don’t need the cold chain that this vaccine requires, “Clarke said.
The first human cases of the coronavirus were identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In less than 12 months, several new vaccines were being developed at an unprecedented rate.
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