LONDON (Reuters) – Britain on Monday began chasing its population with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot in a global first vaccination to provide protection to the elderly and vulnerable, as a new wave of cases threatens hospitals to overwhelm.
Britain boasts a scientific “triumph” that puts it at the forefront of the West, as dialysis patient Brian Pinker (82) becomes the first person to receive the Oxford / AstraZeneca shot outside a trial.
As the major powers see the benefits of the first out of the pandemic, Britain is storming in its population faster than the United States and the rest of Europe, although Russia and China have been vaccinating their citizens for months.
Just less than a month since Britain became the first country in the world to develop the vaccine developed by Pfizer, and German BioNTech, Pinker, which has kidney disease, got the Oxford / AstraZeneca shot.
“I’m so glad I got the COVID vaccine today, and I’m very proud that it was invented in Oxford,” said Pinker, a retired maintenance manager, just a few hundred yards from where the vaccine was developed. , said.
Pinker said he is looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary with wife Shirley in February.
Britain, struggling with the world’s sixth worst death toll and one of the worst economic hits of the COVID crisis, has a resurgence in cases to new daily highs.
This again placed urgency on the deployment plans. Britain prefers to receive a first dose of a vaccine to as many people as possible to give second doses, despite the fact that some doctors and scientists express their concern about it.
Since the launch of the Pfizer vaccine on December 8, Britain has put more than a million COVID-19 vaccines in its arms – more than the rest of Europe put together, said Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
“It’s a triumph of British science that we were able to get where we are,” Hancock told Sky. “In the beginning, we saw that the vaccine was the only long-term way out.”
The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has secured 100 million doses of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine that can be stored at refrigerator temperatures between two and eight degrees, making it easier to disperse than the Pfizer shot.
Six hospitals in England give the first of about 530,000 doses Britain has prepared. The program will be expanded to hundreds of other UK websites in the coming days, and the government hopes to deliver tens of millions of doses within months.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it administered 4.2 million first-dose COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday morning and distributed 13.07 million doses.
But Israel is the world leader: more than a tenth of its population had a vaccine and Israel now gives more than 150,000 doses a day.
ENTWEDLOOP
Britain became the first Western country to approve and roll out a COVID-19 vaccine. Others have taken a longer and more cautious approach, although Russia and China have been vaccinating their citizens for months with various vaccines still undergoing late trials.
On December 31, China approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general use, a survey developed by a subsidiary of state-subsidized pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm. The company said it is 79% effective against the virus.
Russia said on November 24 that its Sputnik V vaccine was 91.4% effective, based on interim results in the late stages. It began vaccinations in August and has so far vaccinated more than 100,000 people.
India approved the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday for emergency use.
Two new variants of the coronavirus complicate the COVID-19 response and may force new national restrictions in England.
Scientists are not confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work on a variant found in South Africa, said Robert Peston, political editor of ITV.
Cases are also fueled by a highly transmitted British variant and more than 75,000 people in the UK died within 28 days after a positive test for COVID.
Johnson said Sunday that stricter restrictions are likely, even if millions of people live under the strictest rules.
England are divided into four different levels, depending on the presence of the virus, and Hancock said the rules in some parts of the country in Tier 3 clearly do not work.
Asked if the government was considering introducing a new national closure, Hancock said: “We do not exclude anything.”
Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, also received the vaccine on Monday.
“We are on the verge of being overwhelmed by this disease,” he told BBC TV. “I think it (the vaccine) gives us some hope, but I think we have some difficult weeks ahead.”
Writing by William James, Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout; Edited by Susan Fenton, Kate Holton, Raissa Kasolowsky and Nick Macfie