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UK Commerce Secretary Alok Sharma has defended the UK’s “absolutely meticulous” approach to the coronavirus vaccine amid global criticism of its swift approval by regulators.
Sharma said the UK should be “very proud” to become the first Western country to green-light a Covid-19 coup as the government responds to skeptics.
He described the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which approved the vaccine, as “highly regarded as the gold standard by international scientists” and added: “They have been absolutely meticulous throughout this process.
“The MHRA is, of course, independent and people should feel completely confident that this vaccine is safe. If not, it would not have been approved. He would not have obtained authorization from the MHRA. “
Now that the UK has authorized the first Covid vaccine, who will get it first?
The government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) says its priority is to prevent Covid-related deaths and protect health and social care personnel and systems.
Nursing home residents and their caregivers are first on the JCVI list because their risk of exposure to the virus is higher and because the risk of death is closely correlated with advancing age. They are followed as a priority by any other person over the age of 80 and front-line health and social care workers.
Still, for pragmatic reasons, NHS staff are likely the first group to take the hit from Pfizer / BioNTech. This is because the vaccine must be stored at extremely cold temperatures, which can be more easily accomplished using hospital facilities.
Are there enough doses to reach all priority groups?
Together, nursing home residents, their caregivers and those over 80 years old number almost 6 million people, and frontline NHS staff 736,685 more. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said that he expects 10 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to be available this year, so if this is the only licensed vaccine, everyone else would have to wait until there are more doses. available next year.
Where will I go for the vaccine?
Covid-19 vaccines are expected to be delivered to three types of locations: trusted NHS “vaccine centers” in hospitals; mass vaccination centers, which are being installed in places like football stadiums, conference buildings and racetracks; up to 5,000 people a day are expected to be vaccinated; and in GP and pharmacy consultations. General practitioners can also visit nursing home residents and homebound patients without travel.
How far apart will the two doses be administered and will I be protected after the first?
While there is some evidence indicating high levels of short-term protection with a single dose of vaccine, a two-dose schedule is what has been approved by the MHRA.
The second dose should be given at least 21 days after the first, and both will be injected into the deltoid muscle, the thick triangular muscle that we use to lift each arm.
For the Pfizer vaccine, its efficacy rate was calculated seven days after the second injection. People will likely have some protection before this, but this is how long it will take for full protection to kick in. We will learn more about the scope of protection and how long it lasts as data from ongoing clinical trials arrives.
Can I pay for the vaccine privately?
Unlikely. England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam has said he believes Covid-19 vaccines should be administered according to clinical priority rather than allowing people to skip the queue if they can afford them.
Will I be able to choose which vaccine I have?
It is also unlikely, at least in the short to medium term. Assuming more than one vaccine is approved, the priority will be to distribute any available doses to people who need them as quickly as possible.
Linda Geddes
His comments came after Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease scientist, said the MHRA had “rushed” to approve his approval, though he later apologized and blamed his comments on a “misunderstanding.” .
Fauci, who heads the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, initially said the UK “ran around the corner from the marathon and joined it on the last mile” and “rushed that approval” .
He contrasted that with the approach of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which said it had been careful to avoid “shortcuts” because it did not want to fuel skepticism about vaccines.
Fauci later told the BBC that he did not mean to imply “any oversight” and said: “I am very confident in what the UK is doing both scientifically and from a regulatory point of view.”
When asked on Sky News Thursday morning about Fauci’s comments, Sharma said: “You should also see what Dr. Fauci has said later overnight on the fact that he trusts the processes that we have followed.
“I just want to leave this point because you are absolutely right to give people confidence that the vaccine is safe. The MHRA, which is the regulator in the UK, is independent. It is also regarded as a gold standard of regulation by international scientists, people from all over the world. “
Coronavirus cases in the UK
MHRA Director Dr. June Raine had previously insisted that “no corners had been cut” in the vaccine background investigation. Raine will reportedly conduct a series of interviews with local and commercial radio stations on Friday in an attempt to convince the public that the vaccine is safe.
There are serious concerns within the government that anti-vaccine activists are clinging to skepticism about speedy approval of the immunization.
The Pfizer / BioNTech Covid vaccine is an mRNA vaccine. Essentially, mRNA is a molecule used by living cells to convert the sequences of genes in DNA into proteins that are the building blocks of all its fundamental structures. A segment of DNA is copied (“transcribed”) into a fragment of mRNA, which in turn is “read” by the cell’s tools to synthesize proteins.
In the case of an mRNA vaccine, the mRNA of the virus is injected into the muscle and our own cells read it and synthesize the viral protein. The immune system reacts to these proteins, which by themselves cannot cause disease, as if they had been transmitted by the entire virus. This generates a protective response that studies suggest lasts for some time.
The first two Covid-19 vaccines that announced the results of the three phase 3 trials were based on mRNA. They were the first to get out of the blocks because as soon as the genetic code for Sars-CoV-2 was known, it was published by the Chinese in January 2020, companies that had been working on this technology were able to start producing the mRNA. of the virus. Making conventional vaccines takes much longer.
Adam Finn, Professor of Pediatrics at the Bristol Children’s Vaccine Center, University of Bristol
England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam also responded to critics, telling the BBC: “If you are a regulator that is a little further behind, what do you say to justify your position that you are further back? Words like the ones we may have heard ”.
The UK announced on Wednesday that it had become the first Western country to license a Covid vaccine, paving the way for mass immunization with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine that will begin next week for those most at risk.
The first doses of the vaccine would arrive in the next few days, the company said. The UK has purchased 40 million doses of the vaccine, which has been shown to be 95% effective in its final trials.
Sharma said he was “very confident” that 800,000 doses of the jab would be available for launch next week and that he expected the UK to have “a few million by the end of this year”.
