[ad_1]
Pfizer and Oxford jabs provide two-thirds protection against Covid after a single injection, according to new data to be revealed.
The Pfizer vaccine begins immunizing in as little as two weeks and is as effective in the elderly as it is in the young, official findings will reveal in the coming days, according to The Sun.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca coup is equally strong, government sources told the newspaper without providing details.
The first dose of Pfizer reduced the risk of symptomatic infection by 64 percent in those over 80 and 65 percent in younger adults, and for those who received the second dose, the protection rate skyrocketed between the 79 and 84 percent of all ages.
The study is a boost to conservative critics of Matt Hancock, who yesterday lashed out at the Secretary of Health for his “forever lockdown” after warning that border restrictions may have to remain until reinforcement hits come in the fall.
Backbenchers skewered the Downing Street pigeon when it revealed the latest brutal measures aimed at preventing mutant variants, some of which are already spreading in Britain, from entering the country.
As Hancock stepped up restrictions, his department announced 12,364 new Covid cases and 1,052 deaths, both data sets down by more than a quarter from last Tuesday’s figures.
Patients Receiving Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine at Haxby and Wiggington Surgery on December 22, 2020 in York, England
It comes after scientists in Israel, which leads the world when it comes to vaccines, warned that the first dose of Pfizer is not “very effective” in reducing cases.
They began distributing the second dose on January 10 and only after that did they begin to see a sharp decline in hospital admissions, dropping by 46 percent for those over 60.
Britain decided to extend the interval between doses from the three weeks recommended by Pfizer to 12 weeks due to the unpredictability of supplies.
The new figures appear to vindicate that decision, with a government source calling the findings “hugely positive,” albeit a few points below the 95 percent protection rate suggested by Pfizer’s own data.
The study showed that the vaccine takes three weeks to develop immunity in the elderly, while it starts after two weeks in the very young.
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, called the findings “quite surprising.”
He told The Sun: ‘If these numbers are confirmed, then they are very reassuring. If they achieve 65 percent protection after three weeks with both hits, then I think that’s really good.
‘And that’s a vindication of our current strategy, as it protects more people than giving two doses three weeks apart.
“I am still, despite the South African tension, quite certain that we will see a gradual opening up of society, probably starting with the opening of schools in early March.”
The government source also told the newspaper that Downing Street would be shown to be correct in approving the Oxford jab for the elderly, while other European countries decided not to give it to those over 65.
Germany, France, Spain and Sweden have decided not to give the Oxford vaccine to older people due to a lack of data from the pharmaceutical company.
But hopes that the launch of the vaccine, which surpasses the world, means that lockdown restrictions can be significantly eased in the short term, were shot down yesterday by Hancock, who revealed a series of border restrictions in the Commons.
Starting Monday, travelers from high-risk ‘Red List’ countries will be forced to spend 10 days in ‘quarantine hotels’, and all arrivals must test negative three times via coronavirus tests Gold standard PCR before being able to move freely around the UK. .
Anyone who lies about whether they have been to places on the banned list recently will face up to 10 years in prison.
Travel and hospitality chiefs warned the UK is facing a second cancellation in the summer due to uncertainty over when restrictions will end demand for holidays and social venues.
They asked for guarantees that the restrictions will be eased from April to avoid pushing their industries “to the brink.”
In a statement from Commons, Hancock faced a number of high-level conservatives on when they could ease restrictions and whether goal posts were being shifted to relax the wider lockdown.
Former whip boss Mark Harper, chairman of the CRG bloc skeptical of the blockade of around 70 MPs, urged the government to reconsider its approach with Covid which is likely to be a permanent problem.
“If the virus continues to mutate, surely the risk will be there forever,” he said.
Public Health England is currently investigating six variants of the coronavirus, five of which have already been found in the UK.
Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay told MailOnline he was skeptical of the border crackdown and that it could do “more damage than it is trying to solve.” He added: ‘All of this trying to keep things from getting in, I think we’re way beyond that, frankly. The virus does its thing no matter where it is. ‘
It came as one of Oxford’s vaccine chiefs, Professor Andrew Pollard, said today that the South African variant was not a “ cause for alarm ” and that the strokes should work to prevent hospitalizations and deaths and reduce the disease to “ “ colds ”.
It comes after South Africa suspended the Oxford release after discovering that the jab was ineffective against the mutant strain in the country.
It comes after another strain, first identified in Bristol, was yesterday labeled by scientists as a “worrying variant.”
Public Health England said it has now found 21 cases of this version of the virus, with 14 in Bristol and the South West, four in Manchester and three ‘scattered’ across the UK.
It is a version of the Kent variant, the dominant strain of the virus in England, which has further mutated to develop a change that was first found in the South African strain that may make vaccines less effective.
Due to this mutation called E484K, which also increases the risk of people being reinfected after having had Covid-19, experts are desperate to eradicate it.
It becomes the third variant of concern found in Britain, along with the now dominant Kent variant and the South African variant.
A fourth, one of two strains from Brazil, is also listed in Public Health England, but has yet to be found in the UK.
Experts said they were concerned about the combination of Bristol variant mutations because it would be “at least as transmissible” as the fast-spreading Kent variant, but also potentially capable of bypassing vaccine immunity.
Although it is not likely to take over and become dominant now, there is a risk that it will manifest when the Kent strain has been suppressed by vaccines.
Sir Elton John and Sir Michael Caine have appeared in an NHS ad urging the public to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The video, shot at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, aims to “ show others that receiving the life-saving jab is easy and safe, ” according to a statement.
The Health Department announced today that it had finished its augmentation tests, which are used to eliminate these variants, in Woking, but started them in Lambeth, London.
The NHS vaccinated 352,480 people on Monday, bringing the total number of Britons who received their first dose to more than 12.6 million.
Matt Hancock has now invited people over 70 who haven’t had the jab yet to book an appointment after first making sure the most vulnerable are taken care of.
People in that age group can now make an appointment using the NHS reservation service or those who cannot connect can call 119.
Hancock said that vaccine adoption has so far been “ significantly better than we expected, ” stating that it has reached a staggering 95% in people in their 70s, 91% in people over 80, and nearly three-quarters of people. 70-year-olds.
He said the government expected about 75 percent, at a Downing Street briefing on Monday.
Front-line health and social care workers, who are also at the top of the priority list, are also urged to come forward and make an appointment if they have not received a dose.
And GPs have been told to contact any extremely vulnerable patients who have not yet received their first injection.
Downing Street said it hopes to have vaccinated everyone over 50 by the end of April, raising hopes that Britain can lift the vast majority of restrictions in May.
Boris Johnson is under pressure to accelerate the reopening of the country as soon as the top nine groups, about 32 million people, are covered.
Britain is shooting at a record rate, distributing more vaccines per person than any other country in the world other than Israel.
Boris Johnson must reveal his ‘roadmap’ to ease the lockdown in the week of February 22, by which time the four most vulnerable groups should have received doses of the vaccine.
Schools are scheduled to come first starting March 8, but concerns about mutant strains have prompted warnings from scientists that any relaxation should be slowed.
