UK starting Pfizer vaccine roll out next week!

[Slayer]

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use. British regulator, the MHRA, says the jab, which offers up to 95% protection against Covid-19 illness, is safe for rollout next week.

The government is "absolutely confident" the UK will have 800,000 coronavirus vaccine doses by next week, when the vaccination programme starts, the business secretary has said.

Alok Sharma said some of the Pfizer/BioNTech doses had arrived, with more expected by the end of the year. 

He was unable to say how many that will be.

NHS Providers said the UK must work on the basis that more doses beyond this might not arrive "for some time".

Chief executive Chris Hopson tweeted that it was "vital" hospitals sought to vaccinate as many people as possible in the highest priority groups. 

He added that with "every day that goes past, we become more confident we will get a lot more [doses] and get them soon".

It comes as official data showed infection levels were falling in all English regions, except the North East. 

The government said the R number - the average number of people each person with Covid-19 goes on to infect - has fallen to between 0.8 and 1 in the UK, from between 0.9 and 1 last week.

It also reported that a further 504 people had died within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test, bringing the total number of deaths in the UK to 60,617.

The first consignment of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine arrived in the UK on Thursday, though the number of doses has not been confirmed. 

Asked about whether the 800,000 doses the UK is expecting in the coming days will arrive by next week, Mr Sharma told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We will have - I'm absolutely confident - that we will have 800,000 doses available at the point next week when we start the vaccination programme. 

"Of course, by the end of this year we will expect some more doses to come through - I can't give you a number on that." 

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine - enough to vaccinate 20 million people.

Elderly people in care homes and care home staff have been placed top of the priority list - which is recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) - followed by the over-80s and front-line health and care staff.

Mr Sharma reiterated that the bulk of the vaccination programme would be carried out next year, adding that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was also reviewing the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

[A.a.A]

It looks like the UK is going to be the guinea pigs for this vaccine. We’ll see what happens to them before everyone else takes it. Interesting.. 

The fact that it’s an RNA vaccine also is scary. I’ve never seen a vaccine rolled out without testing so fast. I’m weary to say the least. 

[MortalMarshmallow]

[Jordan Miller]

Fingers crossed 🤞 

[Isla]

23 minutes ago, A.a.A said:

The fact that it’s an RNA vaccine also is scary. I’ve never seen a vaccine rolled out without testing so fast. I’m weary to say the least. 

See this is what I was worried about. Most other vaccines would take much longer to develop. But I want to try and stay hopeful at least. 

[Alexanda]

Thank you, UK 

[Slayer]

1 hour ago, A.a.A said:

It looks like the UK is going to be the guinea pigs for this vaccine. We’ll see what happens to them before everyone else takes it. Interesting.. 

The fact that it’s an RNA vaccine also is scary. I’ve never seen a vaccine rolled out without testing so fast. I’m weary to say the least. 

I don't want to be a guinea pig 

By the time i'll end up having it, it'll probably have been out for months here in the UK as they are giving it to the vulnerable and older generations first.

I'm in my 20s so i'm not priority  I am scared about a vaccine being out  so soon but then I think it's been approved by the MHRA who i'd like to think would have been extremely thorough. Plus coronavirus isn't new so this has been reviewed for a long time and just had parts modified of already existing vaccines to treat other versions of corona.

[Stefani]

I'm not one of those tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists, but this vaccine worries me. The roll out of this seems too quick and there are bound to be side effects for some of those who do take the vaccine.

[itsmariotrick]

[Alestaos]

3 hours ago, Isla said:

See this is what I was worried about. Most other vaccines would take much longer to develop. But I want to try and stay hopeful at least. 

Yeah this is a fear that a lot of people all around the globe are dealing with. I also believe its a very quick turnaround especially since most vaccines run at least a year in advance of public testing if not longer, due to side effects which could affect the brain can take months to appear.

But yeah whilst i hope also that everything's fine, that quick turnaround is worrisome.

[Pinky98]

4 hours ago, A.a.A said:

It looks like the UK is going to be the guinea pigs for this vaccine. We’ll see what happens to them before everyone else takes it. Interesting.. 

The fact that it’s an RNA vaccine also is scary. I’ve never seen a vaccine rolled out without testing so fast. I’m weary to say the least. 

This has all been very vague so I’ll help you out with the information, I read this in an article a week or two back.

The reason they have been able to get it done so fast is because they already have a big-standard vaccine ready 24/7, 365 and is an RNA vaccine method. It means they developed the RNA years ago so that if a compatible virus pops up, they can just pop the DNA of the virus inside and it will create a vaccine for that virus. It basically gives your immune system the knowledge of how to attack the COVID cells when they enter your body. 
 

The reason they got it so fast is because of a lot of funding and shared scientific knowledge. Everyone has been working on this at once, and most vaccines have donations that trickle in, £100 here, £10000 there, £1 here, etc. With this vaccine, people have been donating millions. This means they haven’t had to be waiting for funding or working with small teams, they’ve had all the resources they could ever need from day one including an existing vaccine method called RNA. 
 

They were able to test it on like 60,000 people I believe, with no side effects (May be more, but that’s what I can remember).

This vaccine has had the same regimented testing that Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and other vaccines have had in the past, but due to high demand and ease of funding, large teams of scientists, etc it has been a lot easier to do and there’s been none of the usual rocupcakess in the way. 
Overall I’m confident this is safe and we have nothing to worry about 

[Slayer]

2 hours ago, Pinky98 said:

This has all been very vague so I’ll help you out with the information, I read this in an article a week or two back.

The reason they have been able to get it done so fast is because they already have a big-standard vaccine ready 24/7, 365 and is an RNA vaccine method. It means they developed the RNA years ago so that if a compatible virus pops up, they can just pop the DNA of the virus inside and it will create a vaccine for that virus. It basically gives your immune system the knowledge of how to attack the COVID cells when they enter your body. 
 

The reason they got it so fast is because of a lot of funding and shared scientific knowledge. Everyone has been working on this at once, and most vaccines have donations that trickle in, £100 here, £10000 there, £1 here, etc. With this vaccine, people have been donating millions. This means they haven’t had to be waiting for funding or working with small teams, they’ve had all the resources they could ever need from day one including an existing vaccine method called RNA. 
 

They were able to test it on like 60,000 people I believe, with no side effects (May be more, but that’s what I can remember).

This vaccine has had the same regimented testing that Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and other vaccines have had in the past, but due to high demand and ease of funding, large teams of scientists, etc it has been a lot easier to do and there’s been none of the usual rocupcakess in the way. 
Overall I’m confident this is safe and we have nothing to worry about 

Thank you for the post, very well informed!

[Isla]

3 hours ago, Alestaos said:

Yeah this is a fear that a lot of people all around the globe are dealing with. I also believe its a very quick turnaround especially since most vaccines run at least a year in advance of public testing if not longer, due to side effects which could affect the brain can take months to appear.

But yeah whilst i hope also that everything's fine, that quick turnaround is worrisome.

Yeah it is a worry. I suppose it was released so fast because people just want to get rid of coronavirus as soon as we can.