Covid vaccinations will begin next week, says
Boris Johnson
PM announces start of mass immunisation amid claim
that Brexit sped up rollout
Heather
Stewart, Sarah Boseley and Daniel Boffey
Wed 2 Dec
2020 20.09 GMTLast modified on Thu 3 Dec 2020 00.19 GMT
Boris
Johnson said the public should stick to the tier restrictions because ‘it will
inevitably take some months before all the most vulnerable are protected’.
Mass
immunisation against coronavirus will begin next week, Boris Johnson announced
on Wednesday as he moved to defuse a diplomatic row over claims that Brexit was
responsible for the fast-track approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The prime
minister said hopes of normal life returning in the spring had given way to
“sure and certain knowledge that we will succeed” after Britain became the
first country in the western world to approve a Covid vaccine.
The
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said no corners had
been cut in licensing the jab in record time, and the vaccine had been
subjected to the most thorough scrutiny by experts working round the clock. The
UK has bought 40m doses of the vaccine, which has been shown to have 95%
efficacy.
Jonathan
Van-Tam, a deputy chief medical officer for England, said the announcement of
the news on Wednesday morning had made him feel “quite emotional”.
He said
once all of the vulnerable groups highlighted as a priority by the Joint
Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation had been protected – including
elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions – it should help to
prevent 99% of deaths from the virus, which has claimed up to 75,000 lives in
the UK.
But the
prime minister also moved to prevent what he called the “huge moment” being
tarnished by a row after Matt Hancock suggested Brexit had paved the way for
the move.
The health
secretary claimed that “because of Brexit”, the UK had been able to approve the
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, rather than wait for the European Medicines Agency
(EMA) to do so. The EMA said on Tuesday that it may wait until the end of
December under a less fast-tracked authorisation process.
“Because of
Brexit, we’ve been able to make a decision to do this based on the UK
regulator, a world-class regulator, and not go at the pace of the Europeans,
who are moving a little bit more slowly,” Hancock told Times Radio.
That
sparked a backlash from the EU, however. Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn,
said Berlin had also considered the fast-track licensing chosen by the UK – and
allowed by any country in emergency circumstances under EU law – but the task
of convincing people of the safety of vaccines was crucial.
“The idea
is not that we’re the first, but the idea is to have safe and effective
vaccines in the pandemic and that we can create confidence, and nothing is more
important than confidence with respect to vaccines,” he said.
Later, with
negotiations on a free trade agreement at a delicate stage weeks from the end
of the transition period, Johnson eschewed the language of “world-beating” UK
science and twice declined the opportunity to hail the rapid approval as a
Brexit dividend.
“I’m going
to exercise a self-denying ordinance, my fabled diplomacy and tact, and just
say I think that this is something that the NHS has been working on for a long
time; the vaccine taskforce; many people have been working on this for a long
time and I pay tribute to all of them,” he told a Downing Street press
conference.
The UK
remains under the remit of the EMA until the end of the Brexit transition
period on 1 January, and EU laws allow other member states to approve medicines
for emergency use without EMA authorisation.
Johnson
said it was important to avoid “overoptimism” and the public should stick to
the tough restrictions in place after England’s lockdown ended on Wednesday,
including strict limits on indoor socialising, because it would take months for
the vaccine to be rolled out.
“It will
inevitably take some months before all the most vulnerable are protected. Long
and cold months. So it is all the more vital that as we celebrate this
scientific achievement we are not carried away with overoptimism, or fall into
the naive belief that the struggle is over,” he said.
And Van-Tam
sounded a note of caution about whether normal life would resume in full. “I
don’t think we’re going to eradicate coronavirus, ever; I think it’s going to
be with humankind forever,” he said.
“Do I think
there will come a big moment where we have a massive party, and throw away our
masks and hand sanitiser, and say: ‘That’s it, it’s behind us!’ like the end of
the war?
“No I
don’t. I think those kind of habits, that we’ve learned from, that clearly help
prevent the spread of other respiratory viruses, like the flu, will perhaps
persist for many years, and it may be a good thing if they do.”
Johnson
responded: “That may be a good thing … on the other hand, we may want to get
back to life as pretty much as close to normal.”
The first
800,000 doses of vaccine for the UK will be sent from Belgium to 50 “hospital
hubs” that have the capacity to keep them in dry ice at minus 70C. They will be
given to people aged over 80 and care home residents while the MHRA works out a
safe way to split the boxes containing 975 doses into smaller batches that can
be taken to care homes at fridge temperature, which is 2 to 8C. The vaccine is
stable at that temperature for five days.
Hancock
said a network of specialist vaccination centres were being built. He said the
vaccine would also be available from some GPs and pharmacists if they had cold
storage facilities.
The Labour
leader, Keir Starmer, warmly welcomed the approval of the vaccine but called on
Johnson to do more to tackle the risk of misinformation, which he called “a
real cause for concern”.
“It’s
really important that we do everything possible to counter dangerous, frankly
life-threatening disinformation about vaccines,” he said, urging the PM to pass
emergency legislation to combat anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories online.
Dr June
Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said “everyone can be absolutely confident
that no corners have been cut” in the approval process. She contradicted
Hancock, adding: “We’ve been able to authorise supply of this vaccine under
provisions under European law which exist until 1 January.”
Albert
Bourla, chair and chief executive officer of Pfizer, added: “Today’s emergency
use authorisation in the UK marks a historic moment in the fight against
Covid-19.
“This
authorisation is a goal we have been working toward since we first declared
that science will win, and we applaud the MHRA for their ability to conduct a
careful assessment and take timely action to help protect the people of the
UK.”
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