The United Kingdom on Monday became the first country in the world to start administering AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine, following emergency clearance last week.
According to a statement from NHS England, 82-year-old dialysis patient Brian Pinker received the first vaccine at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said the vaccination brought peace of mind as he looked forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary with his wife Shirley in February.
“The vaccine means everything to me,” Pinker told the BBC. “It’s the only way to get back to a little normal life. This virus is not terrible?”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock joined other British officials and professors praising the day’s performance, calling it an “important moment in the coronavirus campaign.”
According to NHS England, the vaccine is being distributed to a limited number of hospitals for ‘supervisory purposes’, according to standard practice, before being extended to hundreds of GP services later in the week.
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The AstraZeneca vaccine joins another vaccine already rolled out in the UK – developed by Pfizer and BioNTech – as the country experiences intense virus spread with a mutated strain and the highest daily case to date, which is now more as 50,000 rises. The country reported 54,990 new infections and 454 deaths on Sunday.
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The start of the vaccination program also comes amid talks by British officials who support a decision to extend the period between Pfizer and Oxford’s two-dose vaccination regime to 12 weeks, as opposed to three, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson also defending the idea. .
Officials supporting the extended period argue that this method could help prevent serious consequences and deaths by allowing a wider distribution of doses across the population. AstraZeneca previously said a dosing regimen of up to 12 weeks apart is safe and effective in clinical trials: “The authorization recommends that two doses be administered at intervals of between 4 and 12 weeks. Clinical trials have shown that it is safe and effective against the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19, without serious cases and no hospitalization more than 14 days after the second dose. “
Meanwhile, Pfizer said the vaccine should be administered within the set 21-day period, which reportedly raises questions about the UK’s decision to extend the time between shots.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading contagious disease expert in the US, disagreed with CNN during an interview with CNN on Sunday, and the US Food and Drug Administration will allegedly weigh a case later this week for the administration of Moderna’s vaccines. per multiple reports.
According to a study published earlier this month, the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and 70% effective in clinical trials, but the data involved in the study have been scrutinized over dosing methods. The US has already secured 300 million doses of the still approved vaccine.
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The vaccine was developed using more traditional methods as opposed to the mRNA technology platform used for both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The Oxford-AstraZeneca option involves an inactivated cold virus isolated from chimpanzees, which is altered with genes to express the peak protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Fox News’ Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.