‘ Vaccine means everything to me’
DIALYSIS patient Brian Pinker, 82, yesterday became the first person in the world to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine outside of clinical trials.
Vaccinations kicked off at 7.30am at Oxford University Hospital, just a few hundred yards from where the gamechanging jab was developed.
Mr Pinker, an “Oxford born and bred” retired maintenance manager, said: “The vaccine means everything to me. To my mind it’s the only way of getting back to normal life.
“The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Also among the first to get the vaccine was Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator in the clinical trials.
He said seeing the jab finally rolled out was an “absolute triumph for all of the team who have been working on the vaccine this year”.
He added: “This is a really critical moment. We are at the point of being overwhelmed by this disease.
“So I think it gives us a bit of hope. But I think we’ve got some tough weeks ahead.”
The Oxford vaccine is thought to be 70 per cent effective at preventing infection after one dose, and patients will receive a second up to 12 weeks later to ensure longer- term protection.
Crucially, the trials found that no one who received the vaccine became seriously ill after enough time had passed for immunity to develop.
Prof Pollard said: “After the immune response has kicked in we didn’t see anyone who ended up in hospital.”
Six hospital trusts began delivering the vaccine yesterday in a staged start to the programme, with hundreds more expected to come on stream this week.
Around 700 vaccination sites – including those run by GPs – are already in operation delivering the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine.
More than one million doses of that vaccine had been dished out in the UK by New Year’s Day, more than the rest of Europe combined.
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director, said: “Four weeks ago I had the privilege to be in Coventry for the first jab of the Pfizer vaccine.
“That felt like a huge moment in this pandemic and to be honest, today, when I saw the first jab of the
AstraZeneca vaccine, it felt like an even bigger moment.”
The UK has ordered 100 million doses from AstraZeneca, enough for 50 million people to have two each.
The Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine is far easier to store and transport as it can be kept in a standard fridge, whereas the Pfizer- BioNTech one must be kept at - 70C.
Experts say at least two million vaccines must be delivered each week if Britain is to avoid a devastating third wave of infections.
Health chiefs have promised the NHS will administer the jabs as fast as they can be produced.
Prof Powis said: “If we get two million doses a week, our aim is to get two million doses into the arms of those priority groups.”
Asked how soon the NHS could begin delivering two million doses per week, Prof Powis added: “I would hope certainly this month we would be able to get up to that sort of number, but this is dependent upon supply.”
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the roll- out provided “an important further leap ahead on the path out of a very difficult period for the whole country”.
He said: “NHS trusts will now go hell for leather to vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, because they know how important this campaign is.
“The main constraint at the moment is supply of vaccine doses and trusts are confident they can quickly deliver all the doses that are made available to them.
“There is a huge task and there will, inevitably, be logistical challenges to meet. But, today of all days, this is a time to celebrate the light at the end of the tunnel rather than make those challenges seem bigger than they really are.”
Music teacher and father- of- three Trevor Cowlett, aged 88, also received the jab in Oxford yesterday saying it was “a great honour”.
He said: “It gives me confidence, not that I’m going to overuse it and be foolish about it, but it gives me confidence to know that I am protected as far as is possible.”
And his message for others was simple: “Go away and get it done as quickly as you can.”