When will the Pfizer Covid vaccine be available?
BRITAIN has secured 40 million doses the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine - enough to immunise a third of the UK population.
The US pharmaceutical giant's Covid vaccine is now 95 per cent effective, has passed safety checks and will be ready for sign off "in days".
⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
It means the first jabs could be rolled out within week.
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock said GPs and hospitals are primed and ready to roll out the jab as soon as it's approved.
And the head of the UK's jabs taskforce said we will have stockpiled 10 million doses of the vaccine by Christmas, with another 30 million to follow next year.
But, who will get the jab and how soon can you expect to be immunised?
Is this a big deal?
Yes. These are interim findings and studies will continue but analysis shows that the Pfizer vaccine can prevent nearly 100 per cent of people from getting Covid-19.
The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised.
Pfizer plans to apply to the US regulator the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month.
It will also seek approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK.
The analysis was carried out after 94 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were found among those taking part in the trial.
When will the first doses be available?
UK regulators are poised to fast-track authorisation of the vaccine following news on Wednesday (November 18, 2020) the jab is 95 per cent effective.
That could mean it'll be rolled out to priority groups in just a month.
Downing Street hailed the results as "promising" and said the UK will have 10 million doses ready by the end of the year, if approved by regulators.
GPs and hospitals have been told to prepare for roll-out within three weeks, with the over 85s and NHS staff expected to be first in line.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "The NHS stands ready to begin a vaccination programme for those most at risk once a Covid-19 vaccine is available before being rolled out more widely.
"In total, we've procured 40 million doses of the Pfizer candidate vaccine, with 10 million of those doses being manufactured and available to the UK by the end of the year if the vaccine is approved by the regulators."
Prof Stephen Evans, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "It seems there is some evidence that in older adults there is also very good efficacy with minimal side effects.
"This is very good news, not just for this vaccine. But it also makes it more likely that other vaccines will also be reasonably effective in older adults."
Who will be vaccinated first?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has examined data on who suffers the worst outcomes from coronavirus and who is at highest risk of death.
Its interim guidance, which assumes the jab is safe and effective in all groups, says the order of priority should be:
- Older adults in a care home and care home workers
- All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers, though they may move up the list
- Anyone 75 and over
- People aged 70 and over
- All those aged 65 and over
- High-risk adults under 65
- Moderate-risk adults under 65
- All those aged 60 and over
- All those 55 and over
- All those aged 50 and over
- The rest of the population, with priority yet to be determined.
The JCVI said the prioritisation could change if the first jab were not deemed suitable for, or effective in, older adults.
Will the jabs be free on the NHS?
Two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are needed, three weeks apart.
Trials in the US, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey, showed 90 per cent protection is achieved seven days after the second dose.
The jabs will be made available through the NHS immunisation programme.
Like the flu jab, they will be optional, rather than made mandatory.
In the US, Pfizer agreed to provide 100 million doses of their jab for $1.95billion or $19.50 a dose.
Where will the jabs be administered?
Sir Simon Stevens said vaccines will be delivered at GP surgeries, pharmacies and mass testing centres - including at the Nightingale hospitals.
He said GPs will be put on standby from December should a vaccine be made available before Christmas.
On the eve of lockdown, Wednesday, November 4, he said: “We’re waiting to fire the starting gun.”
Physios and paramedics will be trained to deliver the jab as part of the NHS mass vaccination programme.
Currently only doctors, pharmacists and some nurses are legally allowed to administer vaccines in the UK.
New laws passed in October 2020 mean more healthcare workers, including midwives and medical students, will be able to deliver the jabs.
They are currently being given "robust training" according to the Government, which it says will "save thousands of lives by increasing access to vaccines against killer diseases".
What type of vaccine is this?
The jab is known as a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine.
Conventional vaccines are produced using weakened forms of the virus, but mRNAs use only the virus's genetic code.
An mRNA vaccine is injected into the body where it enters cells and tells them to create antigens.
These antigens are recognised by the immune system and prepare it to fight coronavirus.
What are the advantages of this type of vaccine?
No actual virus is needed to create an mRNA vaccine. This means the rate at which the vaccine can be produced is dramatically accelerated.
As a result, mRNA vaccines have been hailed as potentially offering a rapid solution to new outbreaks of infectious diseases.
They can also be modified reasonably quickly if, for example, a virus develops mutations and begins to change.
mRNA vaccines are also cheaper to produce than traditional vaccines. But both will play an important role in tackling Covid-19.
Are they safe?
All vaccines undergo rigorous testing and have oversight from experienced regulators.
Some believe mRNA vaccines are safer for the patient as they do not rely on any element of the virus being injected into the body.
mRNA vaccines have been tried and tested in the lab and on animals but the coronavirus vaccine will be the first one licensed for use in humans.
The human trials of mRNA vaccines - involving tens of thousands of people - have been going on since early 2020 to show whether it is safe and effective.
Pfizer will continue to collect safety and long-term outcomes data from participants for two years.
Do we have enough doses to vaccinate the UK population?
The UK has secured 40 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine - the first agreement the firms signed with any government.
It is thought people will need two doses, meaning not enough shots have been secured for the entire UK population.
However, it is likely other vaccines will announce results from their clinical trials shortly.
Most read in Health News
What about the other potential vaccines?
In total the Government has ordered 350 million doses of six different Covid-19 vaccines that are in development.
Other potential jabs are at different stages of development, but it's hoped the whole of the UK population - 66.7 million people - can eventually have a vaccine.
The other vaccines the Government has pre-ordered are:
Read More on The Sun
- Oxford Uni/ AstraZeneca: 100 million doses
- Novavax: 60 million doses
- GSK/Sanofi: 60 million doses
- Valneva: 60 million doses
- Janssen: 30 million doses
