LONDON (AP) – The British government on Sunday declared that every adult in the country should receive a first vaccination against coronavirus by 31 July, at least a month earlier than its previous target, because it was prepared to carry out a “cautious” plan set up to alleviate the UK’s exclusion.
The previous goal was that all adults would get a jerk by September. The new target also calls for everyone aged 50 and over and those with an underlying health condition to get their first of two vaccine shots by April 15, rather than the May 1 previous date.
The manufacturers of the two vaccines used by Britain, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have both experienced problems in Europe. But British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Sunday that “we now think we have the stock” to speed up the vaccination campaign.
The early success of Britain’s vaccination effort is welcome good news for a country with more than 120,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe. More than 17.5 million people, a third of British adults, have had one vaccine shot since vaccination began on 8 December.
Britain is delaying the administration of the second vaccine dose to 12 weeks after the first, rather than three to four weeks, to give more people rapid partial protection. The approach has been criticized in some countries – and by Pfizer, which says it has no information to support the interval – but it is supported by the British government’s scientific advisers.
The news about the new vaccine targets came when Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with senior ministers on Sunday to finalize a “road map” from national exclusion. He plans to release details in parliament on Monday.
Confronted with a dominant virus variant that scientists say is more transmissible and deadly than the original virus, Britain has spent much of the winter under strict lockdown. Bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, hair salons and all non-essential shops are closed; grocery stores, pharmacies and takeaways are still open.
The government has stressed that economic and social reopening will be slow and cautious, and it is unlikely that there will be unimportant shopping or socialization outside before April. Many children go back to school from March 8 and residents of nursing homes can have one visitor from the same date.
Johnson’s Conservative government is accused of reopening the country too quickly after the first closure in the spring. The number of newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths is declining in February, but it remains high, and Johnson says the reopening of the roadmap will follow ‘data, not dates’.
But he is under pressure from some conservative lawmakers, who argue that restrictions need to be lifted quickly to revive an economy that has been hampered by three barriers in the past year.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group, said British hospitals were still treating nearly 20,000 coronavirus patients, half the January peak, but almost as many as the peak of the first surge last year.
“If we were to relax very quickly now, we would get another increase in hospitalizations,” he told the BBC.
Edmunds said there was added uncertainty due to new virus variants, including one identified in South Africa that is more resistant to current vaccines.
Hancock told Sky News that the government would take a “cautious but irreversible approach” to reopening the economy.
Despite the success of the fastest vaccination campaign in Europe, the British government is accused of failing to protect the disabled, who are at greatest risk of coronavirus.
The Office for National Statistics found that 60% of people who died of coronavirus in England in 2020 had a physical or mental disability. Many disabled people, with the exception of those with a severe or severe learning disability, were not placed in a priority group for vaccination.
Jo Whiley, a well-known BBC radio DJ, on Sunday emphasized the plight of her 53-year-old sister Frances, who has a learning disability. Whiley said her sister contracted the coronavirus during an outbreak in her care home, whose residents were not vaccinated.
Whiley said her sister was finally offered a shot vaccine – but it came too late.
“She was actually called in last night for her vaccination. “My mother got a message saying she could be vaccinated, but it’s too late, ‘she’s fighting for her life’ in hospital,” Whiley told the BBC. “It can not be cruel.”
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