ninety-year-old margaret keenan became
the first person in the uk to receive
the pfizer jab today
it meant the uk became the first country
in the world to begin using a clinically
approved covert 19 vaccine
eight hundred thousand doses of the fisa
beyond tech vaccine enough for 400
000 people have already arrived in the
uk the over 80s
care home workers and nhs staff will be
among the very first to get the jab
more than 80 vaccine centers are being
set up most for now are in hospitals
and people will be called in to be
vaccinated now health editor hugh pim
was in coventry
as the first vaccine rolled out a
warning his report contains flashing
images
an early morning hospital appointment at
first glance
nothing out of the ordinary but this was
unlike
anything before margaret aged 90
was the very first patient to receive
the newly approved coronavirus vaccine
there was a well-deserved round of
applause and intense interest among
media and health officials
at this hospital vaccination clinic in
coventry
she seemed to take it all in her stride
so margaret first of all tell us how was
it for you it was fine
it was fine i wasn't nervous at all it
was
really good yeah and what do you say to
those who might be
having second thoughts about having this
vaccine i would say go for it
go for it because it's it's free and
it's the best thing that's ever happened
uh at the moment so do please go for it
that's all i say
you know if i can do it well
so can you the matron who administered
the historic
jab said the significance only sunk in
afterwards
i do this all the time i've done
hundreds of vaccinations
but never with such interest and
people like wanting to know what's going
on and wanting to
actually witness it so it's really
surreal it's a world first it represents
extraordinary progress by science
but for the nhs this is a huge
achievement turning research
into reality around the uk there were
similar stories in glasgow the vaccine
was delivered
to the sec center with nhs staff among
the first to receive the jabs
that's really exciting it's lovely you
feel like you're a wee bit of history in
the making don't you it's really lovely
in belfast health staff queued to get
their jabs
the policy is for those doing the
vaccinations to be vaccinated first
the health service in general um has
struggled throughout the fight
and for covert 19 so it feels like a
momentous day so very privileged
at this vaccine center in cardiff one of
seven in wales
more than 200 people have been booked in
every day till friday
we do need people to be patient for that
bit longer let's get through to the
spring
as we work through to the spring we will
be vaccinating as many people as we can
the prime minister on a visit to a
london vaccination centre
wanted to rein in people's expectations
so i just urge people to contain their
impatience
it's a very very exciting moment but
there's still a lot of work to be done
and a lot of discipline to be maintained
the head of nhs england was urging
people not to turn up without
appointments
wait to hear from the nhs we will make
contact with you
the vaccine is being made available to
us from the manufacturers
on a phased basis so the bulk of the
vaccination is going to be
in january february march and april
the priority groups now include the over
80s
harry and ranjan who spoke to us
yesterday had their jabs together in
newcastle
with badges to prove it
margaret certainly won't forget her
vaccination
nor will nhs staff on a dramatic and
momentous day
which they can only hope marks a turning
point cupim bbc news
coventry well as we've been hearing
today is being seen as a historic day
with
thousands of people receiving the
vaccine across the uk
our correspondent john kay has been
speaking to a few of them
a day so many have been waiting for and
at bristol
south mead hospital first in the queue
is jack good morning good morning good
morning
i'm 98. and i suppose it's a bit of
excitement
he's been in hospital for a month having
treatment for bone cancer
but he'll be heading home in a few days
so the vaccine that's just arrived
should start to protect him from covid
so we're going to give the injection
in the top of your arm just here i
thought that's what we came for dude
that's exactly it i just didn't want any
surprises
no surprises and no hesitation this
veteran of the second world war
happy to follow orders i'm floppy
all right bossy boot
that's why i mean jack will still have
to follow orders
even when he's had his second jab later
this month but he will
finally be able to think about seeing
his family again
living hope that the middle of next year
we hopefully be living a normal life
lovely i haven't seen him in so long
bless him
jack's granddaughter steph hasn't been
able to visit because of his cancer
and because of the covered risk so she
was delighted to see our pictures
she hopes the vaccine will mean he can
soon be with the great grandchildren he
loves so much
well he's such a social character he
loves seeing people so
just to be able to go and see him that
bit more and not have the worry will be
great
a hope echoed across the country today
in milton keynes husband and wife arthur
and barbara
she went first i'd rather have the
vaccine than have the kovic 19. i mean
if you're given a choice there's
there's no contest and in the bards
county of warwickshire
to jab or not to jab this really is
81 year old william shakespeare
could make a difference to our lives
from now on couldn't it
um start of changing our lives and our
lifestyle
you've made history today
back in bristol no sign of any side
effects for jack
thank you all grateful and finally able
to plan a future
john kay bbc news well today regulators
in the u.s confirmed the fisa beyond
tech vaccine is
95 effective paving the way for it to be
approved for emergency use there
there are more than 40 other vaccines
currently undergoing human clinical
trials around the world
our science editor david shukman looks
now at the huge challenge of how to roll
out vaccines globally
so that all countries can benefit
the vaccine deployed today marks a
turning point for the uk
but when will it start to reach the rest
of the world
along with all the others that are being
developed
a huge global operation is getting
underway
doses of the pfizer biontech vaccine
which requires extreme cold
are ready to be dispatched as soon as
other countries follow the uk
in giving approval but at the moment
supply can't possibly meet demand the
manufacturing process is complicated
and industry analysts say that
production is encountering more hurdles
than expected
it's incredibly hard to produce a
vaccine that's just it's like cooking
the same soup again and again
night after night and it has to taste
exactly the same it's very difficult to
do
at at scale so we will see herbs and i
think the production figures the big
figures are that
are floating around they are on the
optimistic
side there's no doubt about that rolling
up the vaccines on a global scale is a
daunting
challenge the global population stands
at 7.8
billion now not everyone needs to be
vaccinated to suppress the pandemic
maybe 70 percent to achieve what's
called herd immunity but that still
leaves 5.4
billion people and three leading
manufacturers of vaccines
so that they hope during the course of
the next year to produce enough doses
for 2.6
billion people so that still leaves more
than half the planet
waiting for a vaccine probably in 2022
or even the year after and when the
poorest nations do get the vaccines
they'll be the immense task of
distribution this was the journey for an
ebola vaccine
there are initiatives to help developing
countries but they're not at the front
of the queue
it feels like there is a lot of vaccine
nationalism happening so that's
rich states buying up the vaccines for
themselves
now the issue there is not who gets it
because i think the vaccine will become
available to lower middle-income
countries in particular
but when that's the big problem
meanwhile russia has started using its
own vaccine
but many are wary of it because safety
trials are still underway
and china is also producing vaccines but
there are questions about whether enough
testing has been carried out
getting this far is the result of some
brilliant research
conducted under immense pressure the job
now
is to get it out to the billions who
were waiting
david shuckman bbc news and our medical
editor fergus walsh is here with me
fergus says no doubting what a big day
this is yes rita the superlatives are
justified this is an historic day and it
marks the first steps
in a long road towards a return to
normality
now for most of the year the welsh hopes
have been pinned
on a coronavirus vaccine but it was by
no means certain that we'd get
an effective one so quickly it's an
astonishing achievement
for example despite decades of research
and more than 10 billion pounds in
investment we still don't have
an hiv vaccine now as well as the pfizer
jab there are
two more coronavirus vaccines that look
safe and effective there's the
majorna jab then there's the oxford
astrazeneca
vaccine and oxford today became the
first developers
to publish their full trial data in a
scientific journal which is important
for transparency
and that confirms that it's 70 percent
effective
overall in protecting against kovid and
crucially
no one who got the vaccine got seriously
ill with covid or was hospitalized
now if as hoped the oxford astrozenica
vaccine is approved by the end of the
month
that will allow a major ramping up of
immunization here the uk
has ordered enough doses for 50 million
people in the uk
the oxford vaccine doesn't need to be
stored at minus 70 which will make it a
really important
global vaccine and astrazeneca has
pledged to provide it
not for profit there are 52
covered vaccines in human trials and
we're going to need
many more of them because until every
country
has the vaccine this pandemic won't be
over
okay fergus thank you our medical editor
fergus walsh there