Disease expert welcomes ‘game changer’ vaccine
PROFESSOR Calum Semple has described the Oxford vaccine as a ‘game changer’ if it is approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in the coming days.
Prof Semple, a respiratory disease expert and member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said: “It can be stored at a more convenient temperature and it can therefore be moved around the country a lot more easily.”
The vaccine has been produced in conjunction with AstraZeneca, with staff from the firm’s Macclesfield base involved.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Prof Semple said: “This vaccine is very important because not only does it generate the antibodies that protect you from being infected, it also generates these ‘hunter killer cells’ – the T cells – that actually deal with infection.
“They help people who have some degree of infection, if a little bit of virus escapes and starts causing infection it can actually treat that disease as well in the people that have been vaccinated, so it’s a very, very good vaccine.”
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine could start to be rolled out within just a matter of days.
Currently, the only vaccine approved for use is from American Pfizer and that is being rolled out now and given to the over-80s, frontline health workers and care home residents.
Data for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was passed to regulators just before Christmas who have spent the festive break studying it to see if it is effective and is safe to use.
The Sunday Telegraph reports the Oxford jab could be rolled out en masse from a few days into the New Year.