The United Kingdom gave the first injections of a Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca Plc and the Oxford University, in a race against a variant of the fastest-spreading coronavirus that has created new restrictions on movement across much of the country.
The first injection was given to an 82-year-old kidney dialysis patient at Oxford University Hospital on Monday morning.
Britain is stepping up its vaccine campaign as coronavirus infections increase across the country, putting the country on the verge of another national blockade. He advanced more quickly in approvals and implementations than in the United States or the European Union, releasing the AstraZeneca-Oxford product, despite clinical trials involving fewer participants and which were complicated by a dosage error. A regulatory decision to extend the interval between doses of vaccines from two doses to up to 12 weeks raised more questions.
Brian Pinker receives the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine and the University of Oxford Covid-19 in Oxford on January 4.
Photographer: Steve Parsons / PA Wire / Bloomberg
A new strain which is estimated to be 70% more transmissible is fueling the resurgence of the pandemic in the UK. Schools were closed in much of the country, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson, warned that tougher restrictions may be on the way.
UK Regulators released the AstraZeneca-Oxford photo last week, marking its first worldwide approval. It is the second injection to be authorized for emergency use in Britain, after one Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE received the go ahead in early December.
More than one million people in Britain have received injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to the Department of Health and Social Assistance.
How the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine works
The viral vector vaccine uses a harmless virus to carry genetic material that triggers an immune response to the coronavirus
Sources: University of Oxford, AstraZeneca, Bloomberg research
The UK ran ahead of France, where only about 500 people had their first photos this weekend. President Emmanuel Macron is being criticized for the slow pace of implementation in the country, which has been hampered by caution amid high levels of skepticism about the vaccine. France is behind not only European neighbors like Britain and Germany, but also Israel, where more than 12% of the population has already received injections.
Read the Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker from Bloomberg
In the UK, more than 500,000 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford will be available from Monday, and will be delivered to hospitals in the first few days. The UK plans to expand the number of vaccination sites to more than 1,000, with up to 100 more hospitals and 180 services conducted by general practitioners online this week.
Although the newly approved vaccine has been shown to be less effective than Pfizer-BioNTech in clinical trials, it has some major advantages: It is cheaper and easier to transport and store, requiring only refrigerator temperatures instead of deep freezing. This makes it crucial to the global vaccination push.
David Nabarro, World Health Organization special envoy to Covid-19, called for caution amid the global rush to vaccinate populations.
“I would really like to appeal to each leader just to really take the time to put the vaccine in as many arms as possible a little bit and devote more time to systematic planning of what should be a truly effective global operation,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
The NHS is administering the first injections under a two-dose regimen approved by the Medicines and Health care Product Regulatory Agency. The second can be administered up to 12 weeks later, as the United Kingdom seeks to maximize the number of vulnerable people receiving the first portion, which provides some protection against infections.
The UK has also taken a more flexible approach to the two-dose regimen, saying that in In certain circumstances, such as when it is not known which vaccine the patient received the first time, the second injection can be administered with a product from another company.
The UK regulator has yet to publish complete data to support its decision to allow a longer time interval between shots, which has drawn opposition from the British Medical Association.
“It is grossly and patently unfair for tens of thousands of our highest-risk patients to now try to reschedule their appointments,” said Richard Vautrey, chairman of the association’s General Practitioners Committee.
– With the help of Janice Kew
(Updates with comments from the WHO advisor beginning with the tenth paragraph)