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Vaccinating the entire UK population against COVID-19 could take up to a year, even without interruption, leading scientists have said.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said the scale of the vaccination program “should not be underestimated.”
He issued the warning in the journal Anesthesia along with Professor Tim Cook, consultant in anesthesia and intensive care.
They wrote: “1,000 vaccination centers each vaccinating 500 people a day for five days a week, with no supply or delivery interruptions, would take almost a year to provide two doses to the UK population.
“No country has mounted a vaccination campaign for the entire population in living memory and it must be carried out with local leadership and cultural sensitivity.”
The scientists recognized that the rapid development of vaccines in response to COVID-19 The pandemic was a “remarkable achievement,” but he said the country had a long way to go.
Around 20% of the UK population may refuse to be vaccinated, but the authors said that if 80% of people inject themselves, “eventually there would be the prospect of a degree of population (group) immunity.”
This “would reduce the transmission of the virus in the community to very low levels and protect both those who are vaccinated and those who are not.”
The authors added: “In contrast to the immunity of the population after a natural infection, this would be achieved without the cost of approximately half a million deaths in the UK.”
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GPs in England start administering COVID vaccines
They also suggested that early vaccinations can prevent serious illness rather than stop the transmission of the virus.
“From preclinical studies, it is possible that the first vaccines, likely to be released in late 2020, are more effective in preventing disease progression and hospitalization and less effective in preventing transmission,” the authors wrote.
The scientists said the vaccines will not be “a final solution for COVID-19.”
“This is now an endemic human infection, which will not go away, and like all infectious diseases, we will need to learn to mitigate its impact by adapting our behavior and access to diagnoses, treatments and vaccines,” they said.
The UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on December 2.
Margaret Keenan was the first patient in the UK to receive the Pfizer jab outside of a trial.
Monday, vaccination centers run by local doctors over 100 locations in England received the Pfizer jab in the latest phase of the UK vaccine launch program.
NHS staff, including nurses and pharmacists, will work alongside GPs to inoculate patients, and vaccination centers are operating from existing medical surgeries or community centers.
Margaret Keenan, grandmother of four, was the first person in the UK to receive the Pfizer vaccine out of a trial last week, declaring it a “privilege.”
