Covid-19: Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine judged safe for use in UK

 BBC News

Dated 02.12.2020

By Michelle Roberts

Britain's medicines regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe to be rolled out.The first doses are already on their way to the UK, with 800,000 due in the coming days, Pfizer said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the NHS will contact people about jabs.

Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff. But because hospitals already have the facilities to store the vaccine at -70C, as required, the very first vaccinations are likely to take place there - for care home staff, NHS staff and patients - so none of the vaccine is wasted.

A further 648 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test were recorded in the UK on Wednesday, with another 16,170 cases reported. Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the public not to get "carried away with over optimism or falling into the naive belief that our struggle is over".

He told a Downing Street news conference that, while the "searchlights of science" had created a working vaccine, significant logistical challenges remained.

The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is the fastest vaccine to go from concept to reality, taking only 10 months to follow the same steps that normally span 10 years. The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the jab - enough to vaccinate 20 million people. The doses will be rolled out as quickly as they can be made by Pfizer in Belgium, Mr Hancock said, with the first load next week and then "several millions" throughout December.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the first people in Scotland will be immunised on Tuesday.

Welsh Health and Social Care Minister Vaughan Gething said the rollout of the Pfizer jab to care homes would be particularly difficult because of how it needs to be stored. Mr Gething said that it was not possible to transport the Pfizer vaccine to more than 1,000 care homes across Wales.

The bulk of the rollout across the UK will be next year, Mr Hancock said, adding: "2020 has been just awful and 2021 is going to be better." There is a clear priority list for who gets the vaccine first - and care home residents and staff are top of it. But operational complexities mean the reality will be somewhat different.

When the vaccines arrives, it will be sent straight to major hospitals who have the ultra-cold facilities to store it.From there it can be moved just once - and when it is, it must be kept in batches of 1,000.

That means sending it out to care homes, where there may be only a few dozen residents in some places, would lead to a huge amount of vaccine being wasted. Because of that, the NHS, which is in charge of distributing the vaccine, will run clinics from hospitals at first. This will allow NHS and care home staff to get immunised first as well as, perhaps, some of the older age groups who come into hospital.

It looks like it will not be until much more of the Pfizer vaccine is available or the Oxford University one, which is easier to distribute, is approved that care home residents will be able to get it.


Reference: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55145696

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