The vaccine shot watched around the world
British seniors first to receive Pfizer vaccine
A landmark moment. A watershed. A turning point in the war against an unseen enemy that has taken a wrecking ball to our way of life and killed more than 61,000 people in Britain.
Tuesday, dubbed V-day, marked a breakthrough in our pushback against coronavirus with the launch of the Pfizer/biontech vaccine.
The battle-weary public feared it might never happen, but in the event science prevailed — sooner than we had dared to imagine. In giving the Pfizer drug clinical approval before any other country, Britain finally proved itself to be genuinely world-beating.
And so it was that at 6:31 a.m. precisely, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan made not just national headlines but human history when she became the first patient on the planet to be inoculated against COVID-19.
At University Hospital in Coventry, Keenan, who turns 91 next week, was given the first of two shots. And the rest of us received a much-needed infusion of hope and optimism.
Yet within hours came mixed messages from the Oxford/astrazeneca camp; a troubling reminder that creating a vaccine in record time was always going to represent a challenge.
A study confirmed our homegrown vaccine is “safe and effective” but there are concerns the efficacy may be closer to the 62.1 per cent achieved by two standard doses than the 90 per cent which felicitously resulted from an error that saw volunteers receive half a dose and then a full dose.
This news should not take the shine off V- Day, however. By any standards, it is an astonishing milestone.
In Canada, the federal government says the largest mass immunization effort in the country's history could begin as early as next week. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa expects to receive up to 249,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Its approval is said to be imminent.
The Canadian military will have a role to play in vaccine distribution.
Dr. Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer, said the first doses of Pfizer's vaccine are likely to be given only to people who can physically be at one of the 14 delivery sites identified by provincial governments for the first arrivals of the vaccine.
Tam said at a briefing that it is a “rapidly evolving situation” but acknowledged that this will make it difficult to get long- term care residents vaccinated first.
Just like in Canada, Britain's pushback against the virus comes at a crucial time.
The all- in- this- together consensus of March had been starting to fray. Anti-vaxxers have been growing ever more strident. Young people are flouting regulations by gathering, not helped by pop singers and journalists forced to apologize for partying in public.
Contrast their behaviour with that of the older generation — from Capt. Sir Tom Moore to Her Majesty the Queen and now these early vaccine volunteers — who have been leading from the front, by example, with quiet dignity and old-fashioned stoicism.
“This is for a good cause; I'm so pleased I've had it done,” said Keenan. “This is a terrible disease, we do want rid of it. I'd say go for it — it's free and it's the best thing that has ever happened. If I can do it, so can you.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock welled up in public.
The rest of us were reduced to tears by Gill Rodgers, 86, from Brighton, interviewed about her impending inoculation.
“I'm a bit pleased,” she said. “Although it really doesn't seem fair I'm getting it when so many other people need it too.”
Such selflessness was deeply moving, not least because Rogers lost her husband to COVID during lockdown.
Lyn Wheeler, 81, from Bromley, southeast London, who received the jab, was delighted to take part in what she felt was “very valuable work.”
“You have got to realize that life is a bit of a risk and you can't keep hiding away, you have to stand up and go for things,” she said.
Fighting talk, inspiring sentiments and a reminder to younger generations that fortune favours the brave.
When their turn comes, let us hope they have the courage to roll up their sleeves and Take It Like A Nan.