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Education secretary Gavin Williamson said the UK was the first country in the world to clinically approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than France, Belgium or the US.
Now that the UK has cleared the first Covid vaccine, who will get it first?
The Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) says its priority is to prevent Covid-related deaths and protect personnel and health and social systems.
Residents of aged care homes and their carers are first on the JCVI list because their risk of exposure to the virus is higher and because the risk of death is closely related to older age. They are followed as a priority by anyone over 80 and by health and social workers on the front line.
Even so, for pragmatic reasons, NHS personnel are likely to be the first group to receive the Pfizer / BioNTech blow. This is because the vaccine must be stored at extremely low temperatures, which can be achieved more easily using hospital facilities
Are there enough doses to reach all priority groups?
Together, nursing home residents, their carers, and those over 80 make up nearly 6 million people, and NHS frontline staff another 736,685. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said he expects 10 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to be available this year, so if this is the only licensed vaccine, everyone else should wait until further doses are available. available next year.
Where will I go for the vaccine?
Covid-19 vaccines should be delivered to three types of locations: NHS trust “vaccine hubs” at hospital sites; mass vaccination centers, which are in the process of being set up in places such as football stadiums, conference buildings and racecourses, are expected to vaccinate up to 5,000 people per day; and in doctors’ offices and pharmacies. GPs can also visit nursing home residents and homebound patients without them having to travel.
At what distance will the two doses be administered and will I be protected after the first?
While there is some evidence to point to high levels of short-term protection from a single dose of the vaccine, a two-dose schedule is what has been approved by the MHRA.
The second dose will need to be given at least 21 days after the first, and both will be injected into the deltoid muscle, the thick triangular muscle we use to lift each arm.
For the Pfizer vaccine, its effectiveness rate was calculated seven days after the second shot. People are likely to have some protection before this, but this is the time it takes for full protection to kick in. We will learn more about the extent of protection and how long it lasts as data from ongoing clinical trials arrives.
Can I pay to get the vaccine privately?
Unlikely. British Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said he believes Covid-19 vaccines should be given on a clinical priority basis rather than allowing people to skip the line if they can afford it.
Will I be able to choose which vaccine I have?
Even unlikely, at least in the short and medium term. Assuming more than one vaccine is approved, the priority will be to distribute the available doses to the people who need them as quickly as possible.
Linda Geddes
Williamson said he was not surprised that the UK was the first to launch immunization because “we are a much better country than all of them”.
Asked if Brexit was the credit for the world premiere, Williamson told radio station LBC on Thursday: “Well, I think we have the best people in this country and of course we have the best medical regulators.
Rachael Venables
(@rachaelvenables)This is the moment Gavin Williamson said @NickFerrariLBC the UK was the first to approve a vaccine because “we are a much better country”pic.twitter.com/1PtkOJ1CeB
“Much better than the French, much better than the Belgians, much better than the Americans. This doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than any of them, right? “
It is unclear whether Williamson made his remarks in jest, but they came just 24 hours after Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said the UK was the first to approve the vaccine “because of Brexit”. He contrasted the UK’s approach to the “pace of Europeans, who are moving a little slower”.
Hancock’s claim was contradicted by both Downing Street and the UK medicines regulator. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), which is in charge of approving the vaccine for the European Union, has also released a rare robust statement suggesting that the UK has prioritized speed over gaining public trust in so that he could be the first to throw the jab.
Williamson followed his claim that the UK had “much better” doctors than other countries by saying that we were “able to get on with things”, an observation that could be seen as a blow to the pace of the process. European approval.
Asked a second time on LBC if he meant Brexit should give development credit, the education secretary said, “I think being able to get on with things, deliver them, and brilliant people in our medical regulator. that they make it happen means that the people in this country will be the first country in the western world – in the world – to receive that Pfizer vaccine.
“A real competitive advantage. But do you know who it’s up to? It depends on the brilliant doctors of the regulator who made it possible so quickly, so our thanks go out to them. By doing what they have done, they will save lives. “
The announcement of the decision by the UK government said it came under a provision of the Human Medicines Regulations, passed in 2012, which allows for rapid licensing of medicines in the event of an emergency such as a pandemic.
The UK is still under EMA’s mandate until the end of the Brexit transition period on 1 January and EU laws also allow other Member States to approve medicines for emergency use without authorization from the UK. EMA
During a government briefing on Wednesday, the head of the UK medicines and health products regulator, which made the decision, cited EU rules. “We were able to authorize the supply of this vaccine using the provisions of European law, which exist until January 1,” said June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA. Boris Johnson’s spokesman also explicitly refused to support the health secretary.
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