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An 82-year-old retired maintenance manager has become the first person in the world to receive the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine outside of clinical trials.
Brian Pinker, a dialysis patient, received the puncture at 7:30 am Monday from nurse Sam Foster at Churchill Hospital of Oxford University Hospitals.
Pinker, who describes himself as Oxford born and raised, said in a statement released by NHS England that the jab would give him peace of mind as he continued to receive treatment, and that he was looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary in February.
“I am very happy to receive the Covid vaccine today and really proud that it was invented at Oxford,” he said. “Today’s nurses, doctors and staff have been brilliant and I am now looking forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Foster said: “It was a real privilege to be able to administer the first Oxford vaccine at Churchill Hospital here in Oxford, just a few hundred meters from where it was developed.
“We hope to vaccinate many more patients and health and care personnel with the Oxford vaccine in the coming weeks, which will make a huge difference for the people who live in the communities we serve and the staff who care for them in our hospitals.” .
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England National Medical Director, described the distribution of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine as “another turning point in our exit from this pandemic.”
He told BBC Breakfast: “Four weeks ago I had the privilege of being in Coventry for the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine – remember Maggie Keenan received that first shot – that it felt like a great moment in this pandemic and to be Honestly, today when I saw the first hit on the building behind me from the AstraZeneca vaccine, it felt like an even bigger moment, another turning point in our journey out of this pandemic. “
He continued: “We have been preparing on the NHS for many months for the largest vaccination program in our history. We have already delivered over a million vaccines from the Pfizer vaccine; we now have the AstraZeneca, so our goal is to get it into people’s arms as quickly as it is supplied to us. If we get 2 million doses per week, our goal is to get 2 million doses into the arms of those priority groups. “
When asked what AstraZeneca had said about the supplies, Powis said: “As the prime minister said, we are targeting tens of millions of doses by the time we get to April. This is a new vaccine, each batch will need to be reviewed prior to launch, so the schedule becomes clear in the next few weeks, but as I said, we are eager to get started. ”
