Monday, 7am ...the first jab
Normality in sight as NHS staff gear up to begin vaccinations
A NATION worn down by Covid was last night beginning to dream of a return to normal as NHS staff geared up to start vaccinations next week.
After regulators gave the green light to the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, refrigerated HGVs with 800,000 doses on board were seen heading to Britain – the first western country to approve it.
And a major London hospital trust is expected to deliver the first jab as early as 7am on Monday.
Vaccines are to be given to care workers and people aged over 80 with an existing appointment. British Medical Association council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul hailed the breakthrough after just a matter of months an “incredible achievement of modern science”.
He said: “Less than a year ago we hadn’t even heard of Covid- 19, never mind a vaccination against it. It offers hope that we will start to bring the pandemic to an end.
“This is the first of several Covid-19 vaccines to be approved for use but it’s also the one that presents the greatest logistical challenges in terms of storage and immunising patients outside a hospital setting. We need to make sure staff have the resources and support in place to turn this into an operational success.”
NHS Confederation chief executive Danny Mortimer added: “This is the starting klaxon for people readying to deliver the vaccine. Our stretched NHS faces a monumental effort now to roll out the vaccine quickly and effectively.”
British Society for Immunology president Professor Arne Akbar said: “This is a momentous day for us all. Covid-19 has impacted all our lives in so many ways and hope of an exit strategy has relied on a safe and effective vaccine. Today that hope has been realised.” Vaccination hubs have been set up at 50 hospitals which will be first to administer doses. The jabs need to be stored at minus 70C and can only be brought out for five days. NHS staff and armed forces personnel then face a huge challenge distributing them before they go off. During December doses
will be transported to around 1,000 GP-led clinics.
Care homes residents will have to wait longer because of the storage difficulties – despite their being in the first priority group eligible.
The jabs are distributed in frozen cases of 975 doses which are not yet approved to be broken up in to small numbers prior to distribution.
Once technical approval is given to split packs, “roving teams” could be deployed to vaccinate in care homes and vulnerable housebound people.
Mass vaccination centres will then be set up in all major cities including the London Nightingale Hospital.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency granted emergency use authorisation yesterday, confirming the vaccine is 95% effective.
Boris Johnson told a press conference the “searchlights of science” had finally picked out the “invisible enemy”. But he warned: “It will take some months be f o re all the most vulnerable are protected, long , cold months.”
And deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van- Tam said there may never “come a big moment where we have a massive party and throw our masks and hand sanitiser and say ‘ that’s it, it’s behind us”. He added: “I think we may get to a point where coronavirus becomes a seasonal problem. I don’t want to draw too many parallels with flu, but, possibly, that is the kind of way we would learn to live with it.”
He was interrupted by Mr Johnson, who said: “Maybe, on the other hand, we may want to get back to life as pretty much as close to normal.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “From early next week we will start the programme of vaccinating people against Covid-19 here.”
The lorries containing the vaccines left Pfizer’s Belgium HQ.
This is the starting klaxon for people to deliver the vaccine
DANNY MORTIMER NHS CONFEDERATION CHIEF
VITAL Covid-19 vaccinations will kick off within days but worried people may need a sharp dose of facts first.
Scepticism about vaccines has been growing throughout the pandemic and a recent survey
found that one in five British adults may refuse to take a coronavirus jab – even though it is probably our only hope of a return to normality.
Azeem Majeed, inset, professor of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, helps you separate fact from fiction...