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 Britain touted a scientific "triumph" that puts it at the vanguard
of the West as dialysis patient Brian Pinker, 82, became the first
person to get the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot outside of a trial.
As major powers eye the benefits of being first out of the pandemic,
Britain is rushing to vaccinate its population faster than the
United States and the rest of Europe, though Russia and China have
been inoculating their citizens for months.
Just under a month since Britain became the first country in the
world to roll out the vaccine developed by Pfizer and Germany's
BioNTech, Pinker, who has kidney disease, received the Oxford/AstraZeneca
shot.
"I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really
proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford," Pinker, a retired
maintenance manager, said just a few hundred metres from where the
vaccine was developed.
Pinker said he was looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding
anniversary with wife Shirley in February.
Britain, grappling with the world's sixth worst death toll and one
of the worst economic hits from the COVID crisis, has seen a
resurgence in cases to new daily highs.
That has put renewed urgency on rollout plans. Britain is
prioritising getting a first dose of a vaccine to as many people as
possible over giving second doses, despite some doctors and
scientists expressing concern.
Since the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine started on Dec. 8, Britain
has put more than a million COVID-19 vaccines into arms - more than
the rest of Europe put together, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
"That's a triumph of British science that we've managed to get where
we are," Hancock told Sky. "Right at the start, we saw that the
vaccine was the only way out long term."
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has secured 100 million
doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which can be stored at
fridge temperatures between two to eight degrees, making it easier
to distribute than the Pfizer shot.
Six hospitals in England are administering the first of around
530,000 doses Britain has ready. The programme will be expanded to
hundreds of other British sites in coming days, and the government
hopes it will deliver tens of millions of doses within months.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had
administered 4.2 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of
Saturday morning and distributed 13.07 million doses.
But Israel is the world leader: more than a tenth of its population
have had a vaccine and Israel is now administering more than 150,000
doses a day.
[to top of second column] |
 VACCINE RACE
Britain became the first Western country to
approve and roll out a COVID-19 vaccine. Others
have taken a longer and more cautious approach,
though Russia and China have been inoculating
their citizens for months with several different
vaccines still undergoing late-stage trials.
China on Dec. 31. approved its first COVID-19 vaccine for general
public use, a shot developed by an affiliate of state-backed
pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm. The company said it is 79% effective
against the virus.
Russia said on Nov. 24 its Sputnik V vaccine was 91.4% effective
based on interim late-stage trial results. It started vaccinations
in August and has inoculated more than 100,000 people so far.
India approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday for
emergency use. Two new variants of the coronavirus
are complicating the COVID-19 response and might force new national
restrictions in England.
Scientists are not fully confident that COVID-19 vaccines will work
on a variant found in South Africa, ITV political editor Robert
Peston said.
Cases have also been fuelled by a highly transmissible UK variant
and more than 75,000 people in the United Kingdom have died from
COVID within 28 days of a positive test.
Johnson said on Sunday that tougher restrictions were likely, even
with millions already living under the strictest tier of rules.
England is divided into four different tiers, depending on the
prevalence of the virus, and Hancock said the rules in some parts of
the country in Tier 3 were clearly not working.
 Asked whether the government was considering imposing a new national
lockdown, Hancock said: "We don't rule anything out."
Andrew Pollard, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, also received
the vaccine on Monday.
"We are at the point of being overwhelmed by this disease," he told
BBC TV. "I think it (the vaccine) gives us a bit of hope, but I
think we've got some tough weeks ahead."
(Writing by William James, Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout;
Editing by Susan Fenton, Kate Holton, Raissa Kasolowsky and Nick
Macfie)
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