Vaccines won’t be rolled out until spring at earliest
THE UK Government’s chief scientific adviser yesterday warned it is “unlikely” a coronavirus vaccine will be available for widespread use until the spring.
Sir Patrick Vallance said the first vaccines are being manufactured now but played down hoped of stopping the disease completely.
Giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, he said only smallpox had ever been completely eradicated. He added: “It’s unlikely we’ll have a Covid vaccine for any sort of widespread use in the community before at least spring next year.”
Vallance also warned that treating Covid-19 may become more like seasonal flu in future.
He said: “It is unlikely we will end up with a truly sterilising vaccine that completely stops infection.”
Vallance said it will only become clear over the next months if any of the vaccines being manufactured actually work, and for how long.
Only phase three trials, he added, will provide answers.
Hundreds of thousands of doses have already rolled off the production line at US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s factory in Puurs, Belgium, ready for use if clinical trials prove successful.
It sees the firm nose ahead in the race for a coronavirus vaccine, which is taking place around the world.
Pfizer hopes to produce 100million doses this year, with 40million heading to the UK. Each person who receives the vaccine will need two doses.
Vaccines normally take years of testing and clinical trials but scientists are hoping to fast-track an effective and safe vaccine.
More than 40 are undergoing human clinical trials and another 156 are in the pre-clinical stages of development.
Trials have been taking place in Oxford University, Imperial College London, Cambridge and Leeds.
Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said the Oxford jag being made by AstraZeneca could be available around the turn of the year.
Working with the UK Government’s Vaccines Taskforce, US firm Novavax is undertaking phase three trials in areas including Leeds.
More than 250,000 people in the UK have volunteered to take part in Covid vaccine trials.
The UK has signed supply agreements for millions of doses with Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi Pasteur and France’s Valneva SE.
The Government and Valneva are developing a vaccine manufacturing facility in Livingston.
If developed, the vaccine will first be given to those most at risk, such as frontline health workers, older people and those with health conditions.
The UK has signed the WHO’s “COV-access agreement” which aims to ensure poorer nations have equal access to any vaccines.