Brian Pinker, 82, receives the Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Sam Foster Nurse at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, South West England, on January 4, 2021. –
STEVE PARSONS | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – The United Kingdom has launched the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, marking another step in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The country’s National Health Service (NHS) is the first in the world to launch the jab after it was approved for use in the UK by the Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last week. The NHS said 82-year-old Brian Pinker was the first person in the world to receive jab on Monday morning.
Approval and deployment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is seen as an advantage in the race against Covid-19, as it is cheaper than the alternatives created by Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna.
In addition, unlike rival vaccines, it can be stored, transported and handled under normal refrigeration conditions (2 to 8 degrees Celsius or 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit) for at least six months.
When the vaccine was approved last week, AstraZeneca said it intended to “deliver millions of doses in the first trimester” as part of its agreement with the British government to deliver up to 100 million doses in total.
As a two-dose vaccine, the agreement means that up to 50 million people in the UK, with a population of around 66 million, could be inoculated.
In a statement on Monday, the British government said more than half a million doses are now available “with tens of millions more to be delivered in the coming weeks and months once the batches have been quality checked by the MHRA”. .
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is in addition to a Covid-19 immunization program already launched by the UK in December, when the launch of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine began. More than a million people in the UK have already been vaccinated with Pfizer shot, according to the government. He said on Monday that more than 730 vaccination sites had been set up in the UK and that hundreds more were open this week.
As with the Pfizer vaccine, the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot will be launched first for priority groups, including residents and home staff, people over the age of 80 and health and care workers, and then for the rest of the population in order. age and risk, including those who are extremely clinically vulnerable.
“The key moment”
Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “this is a key moment in our fight against this terrible virus and I hope it will give everyone hope that the end of this pandemic is in sight”.
The launch of another vaccine could not come soon enough for the UK, which is facing a wave of infections, mainly attributed to a mutation in the virus that makes it spread more easily. The UK has now reported more than 2.6 million cases of the virus and more than 75,000 deaths to date, according to an account from Johns Hopkins University.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that there are more restrictions on public life as Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
On Monday, Hancock told Sky News that the UK could not launch the vaccine sooner than the supply allows, but experts agree that the UK needs to step up its vaccination program as soon as possible. Last week, a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine concluded that Britain needs to vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of coronavirus outbreaks.
On Saturday, The Times anonymously quoted a “key member of the Oxford-AstraZeneca team” as saying that the drug maker would increase production so that two million jabs would be made each week by mid-January.
This goal is achievable, but challenging, according to Dr. Andrew Freedman, a reader of infectious diseases at Cardiff University School of Medicine. He told CNBC on Monday that the launch speed depends on “vaccine availability, vaccine production, but also its distribution and the establishment of new vaccination centers and the recruitment of new vaccinators.”
“It’s a target, but it’s realistic and I think it can be achieved by the end of the month,” he told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.
People most at risk will be vaccinated first with shots initially given in hospitals before most of the consumables are sent to hundreds of medical offices and nursing homes later in the week.
Somewhat controversial, the MHRA, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) and the four medical officers in the UK have agreed to delay the gap between the first and second doses of coronavirus vaccines which are now available to the public. The change in strategy was, they said, to protect as many people as possible in the shortest possible time.
The British Medical Association said the decision to postpone the follow-up dose of the Pfizer vaccine and cancel appointments for patients already set to have a second dose was “extremely unfair” for thousands of patients at risk. However, experts such as Freedman said that for a vaccine such as the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate, a larger dose gap could increase the effectiveness of the jab.
The government insisted last week that “the priority should be to give the first dose to as many people in risk groups as possible to provide the two doses needed in the shortest possible time.”
“Everyone will continue to receive the second dose and it will be within 12 weeks of their first. The second dose completes the course and is important for longer-term protection,” he added.