Boris booster: vaccine’s safe
Injection is reliable and there’s no delay to freedom, says PM
BORIS Johnson last night urged Britons to ‘get the jab done’ as regulators declared the Oxford vaccine safe.
The Prime Minister, who will have the AstraZeneca injection himself today, said that a supply shortfall next month will not jeopardise the ‘road to freedom’.
He said both the European Medicines Agency and the UK’s own regulator had confirmed its safety and effectiveness despite a week of scare stories in Europe.
Speaking at a No 10 press conference, Mr Johnson said: ‘The Oxford jab is safe and the Pfizer jab is safe. The thing that isn’t safe is catching Covid, which is why it’s so important that we all get our jabs as soon as our turn comes... So let’s get the jab done.’
Flanked by chief medical officer Chris Whitty and vaccine regulator June Raine, he insisted the shortfall that is set to cause a slowing of the rollout next month will not derail plans to ease lockdown.
‘The supply we do have will still enable us to hit the targets we have set,’ the PM said. ‘Our progress along the road to freedom continues unchecked.’
Europe’s EMA regulator yesterday ruled the AZ jab ‘safe and effective’, after a string of countries suspended its use this week. In the wake of the ruling, France,
Germany, Spain and Italy all said they would resume using it.
The PM’s pledge to hit the existing targets means the over-50s and the clinically vulnerable will still be offered a first dose by April 15, while second doses will be available to around 12million people over the course of next month.
Every adult will be offered a first dose by the end of July, as planned. But people in their forties who had hoped to get theirs next month may have to wait until May.
Last night’s press conference was designed to reassure the public that Britain’s successful vaccination programme remains on track despite blows this week.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told MPs that scare stories on the continent were having a knock-on effect in the UK.
He said hundreds had failed to turn up for appointments at London’s Excel Centre due to ‘misinformation circulating online’.
Professor Whitty last night acknowledged there were anecdotal reports that some people had been put off having their jab.
But he pointed to figures showing more than a million had received their vaccination in the previous 48 hours, adding: ‘The risks are so much smaller than the benefits.’ Dr Simon Clarke, from the University of Reading, said the ‘ripple effects’ of the vaccine supply shortfall could last for months, while Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunology, said the slowdown in giving first doses next month ‘could have an effect on infection rates’.
The suspension of the AZ vaccine by some EU countries is feared to have further undermined public confidence in vaccination.
France’s Emmanuel Macron initially claimed the jab was ‘quasiineffective’ among older people before later endorsing it. Germany also reversed a ban on its use among the over-65s.
Peter Openshaw, a member of one of the subgroups of the Government’s Sage committee, said the tactics would cost lives. He told Times Radio: ‘Because of this delay, and the uncertainty of the vaccine in some people’s minds... it will probably run to thousands of lives that have been lost.’
‘Misinformation is circulating’