Vaccine ‘available from September’
THE mother of a grammar school boy who was stabbed to death in an affluent Cheshire village has died, her family said.
Yousef Makki, 17, a scholarship boy at Manchester Grammar School, was knifed in the heart by his friend, former public schoolboy Joshua Molnar, 18, during a fight in upmarket Hale Barns on March 2 last year. Yesterday, the family said his mother Debbie Makki had died.
A post on the Facebook page Justice for Yousef Makki, written by his sister Jade Akoum, said: “24th of May at 4am my beautiful strong mum Debbie Makki peacefully passed away.
“God rest your soul, at least you are with Yousef now, we told him we needed you here a bit longer but you had to be together!
“I seen you over the fence twice in 12 weeks because I was worried about you with corona and we said we would all have a big party once it was all over. We love you so so much, I didn’t think my heart could take any more pain and loss and grief.
“Please say a prayer for her soul today and pray for my little brother who has lost two of the closest people to him in the space of a year and all of us that have been left behind. Mum died with a broken heart and we knew she wanted justice for Yousef and I promise you mum we wont give up until we get it for you.”
Ms Makki and the family have been calling for a full inquest into Yousef’s death, and at a pre-inquest hearing in February their legal representative Matthew Stanbury said matters surrounding the teenager’s death “have not been sufficiently aired”.
In October, Ms Makki gave a speech at an anti-knife crime summit in Manchester.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham wrote on Twitter: “So so sorry to hear this news.”
BRITISH people will be able to access a coronavirus vaccine from September, the chief executive of drug maker Astrazeneca has said, despite concerns it will not be ready.
Pascal Soriot told The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that British people will get first access to the vaccine from autumn.
The pharmaceutical firm, which is working with Oxford University, had previously said it has secured the first agreements for at least 400 million doses of the vaccine.
But a leading member of the project told The Sunday Telegraph the lower transmission of Covid-19 in the community leaves the trial with only a 50% chance of success.
Asked if people in Britain will be among the first to get the vaccine, Mr Soriot said: “Yes, we have actually received an order from the British Government to supply 100 million doses of vaccine, and those will go to the British people. And there’s no doubt, starting in September, we will start delivering these doses of vaccine to the British Government for vaccination.”
But Mr Soriot went on to say the possibility of the vaccine being rolled out in autumn depended on if an Oxford University trial worked before the transmission rate lowers further.
He added: “The vaccine has to work and that’s one question, and the other question is, even if it works, we have to be able to demonstrate it. We have to run as fast as possible before the disease disappears so we can demonstrate that the vaccine is effective.”
Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group began development on a vaccine in January, using a virus taken from chimpanzees.
Following an initial phase of testing on 160 healthy volunteers between 18 and 55,
PETER BYRNE/PA WIRE the study is now set to progress to phases two and three, which involve increasing the testing to up to 10,260 people and expanding the age range of volunteers to include children and the elderly.
Professor Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute, said if the virus’s spread is too low, not enough of the volunteers will catch it and the trial will be unable to definitively say if the vaccine works.
“It’s a race against the virus disappearing, and against time,” Professor Hill said.
“We said earlier in the year that there was an 80% chance of developing an effective vaccine by September. But at the moment, there’s a 50% chance that we get no result at all.
“We’re in the bizarre position of wanting Covid to stay, at least for a little while.”
Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the Jenner Institute, said: “We have had a lot of interest already from people over the age of 55 years who were not eligible to take part in the phase I study, and we will now be able to include older age groups to continue the vaccine assessment.
“We will also be including more study sites, in different parts of the country.”