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Boxes of the first doses of vaccine arrived over the weekend, including at a South London hospital. The Biontech and Pfizer vaccine poses a logistical challenge for authorities, as it must be cooled to minus 70 degrees Celsius. If necessary, the British government wants to fly Belgium-produced preparation with military aircraft so that it does not get bogged down in the dreaded Brexit traffic chaos.
As of Tuesday, which the British Health Minister refers to euphorically as “V-Day” (V for “vaccination”, German: “vaccination”), people over 80 years old, nursing home employees of elderly and especially vulnerable medical personnel. receive a vaccination card as proof, which should also remind you of the second vaccination appointment about three weeks after the first.
The rest of the population has to wait months
For most of the population, however, it will be well into the new year before they can get vaccinated, according to the NHS national health service. Larger vaccination centers, for example in football stadiums, should only be opened when large quantities of the vaccine are available. The vaccination program will be “a marathon, not a sprint,” said NHS chief Stephen Powis. The government’s medical adviser, Chris Whitty, welcomed the start of the program, saying it felt “like the beginning of the end.”
Britain had gone ahead last week and was the first country to give the vaccine from the Mainz company Biontech and the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer an emergency approval. In all, the country ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough for 20 million Britons, which is just under a third of the population.
The European Medicines Agency Ema is expected to make the important decision on the approval of the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine in December. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn stressed that the EU has opted for a joint approach. (SDA)
