NOW FOR THE VACCINE BLAME GAME
Thousands get first dose of new jab – as PM points the finger at drug firms and regulator for delays
THOUSANDS of people across the UK received the first doses of the new Oxford jab yesterday as a row erupted over the speed of its rollout.
Nicola Sturgeon said the country is in a ‘race between the vaccine and the virus’ with a target of 2.5million Scots to receive at least one dose by early May.
Health chiefs said the biggest vaccination drive in NHS history can ‘really get going’, with half a million doses approved for use this week.
Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for NHS England, hailed it as ‘another turning point in our way out of this pandemic’.
Comparing it to the first dose of the Pfizer jab administered last month in Coventry, he said it felt like ‘an even greater day’ because the nature of the vaccine meant it could be given more swiftly.
But there has been rising criticism of the vaccine programme, which has so far seen just over a million people receive a jab in little under a month, including 100,000 in Scotland – way short of a suggested target of two million a week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock appeared to lay the blame for the slow start with manufacturers. ‘There isn’t a delay. It’s a matter of getting the vaccine as soon as it’s manufactured,’ he told BBC Breakfast.
‘It then has to go through crucial safety checks, which are obviously very important, and get into the NHS and delivered into people’s arms.’
He said that a change in how the vaccine is delivered – with the recommended second doses for both jabs now being up to 12 weeks later – is increasing vaccine delivery.
Mr Hancock added: ‘We’re accelerating the programme using the vaccine that is available and working very closely with the manufacturers to bring in as much of it as possible.
‘And then the challenge on the NHS side, which is a big national effort, is to take that vaccine and get it delivered into people’s arms as quickly as f easibly possible using all the resources possible.’
First Minister Miss Sturgeon said: ‘In total, over the period to the end of January, we expect to have access to just over 900,000 doses of vaccine.
‘Those doses will be split roughly equally between the Pfizer and Astra-Zeneca vaccines.
‘We do not yet have certainty on supply schedules beyond January... our current expectation is that by early May everyone over 50, and people under 50 with specific underlying conditions, will have received at least the first dose of vaccine. That is everyone on the priority list and comprises more than 2.5million people.’
Jabs are being given at hospitals for the first few days, to ensure the vaccine’s safety. After that it will be administered at mass vaccination hubs, including the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
An army of 2,300 NHS Scotland vaccinators will give the jabs.
Miss Sturgeon added that once everyone on the priority list has been vaccinated, the NHS will start vaccinating the rest of the population, in parallel with completing second doses for those on the priority list.
‘Those timetables are, of course, heavily dependent on vaccine supply and, for that reason, they are also cautious,’ she added.
Across the UK, the NHS has vaccinated more people than anywhere
‘We’re accelerating the programme’ ‘Each batch must be approved’
else in Europe, including more than one in five people over the age of 80.
However, the UK is falling behind countries such as Israel, which has managed to vaccinate at a rate ten times faster per head.
It has vaccinated more than 10 per cent of its population already with a first dose, according to the Adam Smith Institute.
A report by the think-tank warns more British civilians have died from Covid since February than were killed in the entire Second World War, and called for a ‘war response’ with better utilisation of the private sector and pharmacists to deliver jabs.
Yesterday Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested that strict safety checks required by medicine regulators were behind the limited vaccine rollout so far.
He said: ‘We have the capacity, the issue is to do with supply of the vaccine. It’s not so much a manufacturing issue, although that’s part of it. Each batch needs to be properly approved and quality controlled.’
Mr Johnson promised there will be a ‘massive ramp up’ in vaccination numbers in the coming weeks, which officials said was already going on behind the scenes.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) insists that every batch of vaccine must be inspected and signed off before it can be administered, a process which takes a few days.
Dr June Raine, MHRA chief executive, dismissed Mr Johnson’s claim that the batch approval process was stalling the rollout.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, she said the MHRA ‘is fully scaled up to do the batch testing’ but it was waiting to receive more batches from manufacturers.