THE Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has told the public they can have full confidence in the new coronavirus vaccine.
The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus jag is set to be rolled out from next week, making the UK the first country in the world where it’ll be administered.
It’s been approved in record time, taking just 10 months in a process that normally takes around 10 years.
The speediness of the approval was questioned by the EU’s European Medicines Agency (EMA).
They said they wouldn’t be in a position to say yes or no until December 29.
“The idea is not to be first but to have a safe and effective vaccine,” Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn told a news conference.
“If you evaluate only the partial data as they are doing they also take a minimum of risk,” the EMA’s former head Guido Rasi told an Italian radio.
“Personally I would have expected a robust review of all available data, which the British government has not done to be able to say that without Europe you come first,” he added.
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Matt Hancock told Sky News the UK was the first country in the world to have a “clinically authorised vaccine” and it would be deployed as “quickly as it is manufactured”.
He added: “The MHRA, the fiercely independent regulator, has clinically authorised the vaccine for roll out.
“The NHS stands ready to make that happen.”
The head of the MHRA, Dr June Raine, said that no corners have been cut.
“The safety of the public will always come first,” she said, “This recommendation has only been given by the MHRA following the most rigorous scientific assessment of every piece of data so that it meets the required strict standards of safety, of effectiveness and of quality.”
She added: “If you’re climbing a mountain, you prepare and prepare. We started that in June. By the time the interim results became available on November 10 we were at base camp.
“And then when we got the final analysis we were ready for that last sprint that takes us to today.”
The first doses are set to arrive in the UK today, with around 800,000 due over the next week. In all, 40 million doses have been ordered by the NHS.
Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list, followed by over-80s and health and care staff.
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There are logistical difficulties with the Pfizer Vaccine. It needs to be stored in -70C ultra-cold facilities. From there it can only be moved once.
And when it is moved, it must be kept in batches of 1000.
That’s raised questions about care homes. Sending out 1000 doses to a building with just 30 or 40 patients would be extremely wasteful.
It’s likely the elderly will be treated in clinics run from hospitals – who have the facilities to store the vaccine at the right temperature.
However, the Oxford University vaccine is likely to be approved soon, and it doesn’t have the same need to be kept cold.
Speaking in the Commons, Boris Johnson said it was “very, very important that people do not get their hopes up too soon about the speed with which we will be able to roll out this vaccine.”
The approval was, he said, “very, very good news”. “But it is by no means the end of the story, it is not the end of our national struggle against coronavirus.”
The order in which people will get the jab is recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations and decided by the government.
Priority will be given to residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults.
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