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LONDON (Reuters) – Britain began mass vaccinating its population against COVID-19 on Tuesday, becoming the first Western nation to do so in a global effort that poses one of the greatest logistical challenges in peacetime history.
On a day dubbed “V-Day,” healthcare workers began inoculating people with an injection developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the country is a test case for the world as it faces the distribution of a compound that should be stored at -70 ° C (-94 ° F).
Britain is the first country in the world to begin mass inoculations with this vaccine, one of three injections that have reported successful results from large trials after being developed in record time.
Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old British grandmother, was the first person in the world to receive the vaccine outside of a trial after its rapid clinical approval.
Health Minister Matt Hancock described the start of the vaccines as “V-Day.” “If we can do that for everyone who is vulnerable to this disease, then we can move on and we can get back to normal,” he said.
The launch will fuel hope that the world is taking a turn in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people and crushed economies.
Britain, the worst-hit European country with more than 61,000 deaths, has ordered enough supplies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to vaccinate 20 million people. The developers said it was 95% effective in preventing disease in end-stage trials.
Russia and China have already started offering domestically produced candidate vaccines to their populations, albeit before final safety and efficacy trials have been completed.
‘DECISIVE TURNING POINT’
In Britain, around 800,000 doses are expected to be available in the first week, with priority for nursing home residents and carers, the over 80s and some health care workers.
The country is relatively small with good infrastructure. However, logistical challenges in distributing the vaccine, which only lasts for five days in a normal refrigerator, mean that it will first go to dozens of hospitals and still cannot be taken to nursing homes.
Larger trials could be expected for the Pfizer-BioNTech injection, as well as a vaccine from Moderna, which was found to have a similar level of success in trials and is based on the same genetic mRNA technology that requires ultra-cold storage.
Transportation and distribution could prove more challenging in larger countries, including the United States and India, which have been hit hardest by the pandemic, and in warmer nations.
The third vaccine to have been successful in trials, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, is considered to offer one of the best hopes for many developing countries because it is cheaper and can be transported at normal refrigerator temperatures. The late-stage trials found that it had an average success rate of 70%.
Britain approved the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for emergency use less than a week ago, and is releasing it before the United States and the European Union, from where it will finally part ways at the end of the year.
“The deployment of this vaccine marks a decisive turning point in the battle against the pandemic,” said Simon Stevens, head of the publicly funded NHS health service.
In all, Britain has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech injection. Since each person requires two doses, that’s enough to vaccinate 20 million people in the country of 67 million.
But the country is spreading its bets and has ordered 357 million doses of seven different COVID-19 vaccines in total.
Report from Alistair Smout; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Pravin Char
