the united kingdom has become the first
country in the world to approve the
coronavirus vaccine
developed by pfizer and beyond tech the
rollout will start next week with the
over 80s
nhs workers and staff in care homes at
the front of the queue
after that it will be allocated
according to age and assessment of
vulnerability
the prime minister warned that the
three-tier system in england and the
separate regimes in scotland wales
and northern ireland remained crucial
and that
people needed to continue to follow the
rules the mhra that's the regulator
which approved the vaccine in record
time
insisted that no corners had been cut in
the process of approval
our medical editor fergus walsh has the
latest
this is an historic moment at last there
is a
clear path out of this pandemic thanks
to vaccination the uk is the first
country in the world to approve the
pfizer biontech vaccine
seen here on the production line in
belgium
the prime minister made clear the
vaccine won't change
life for now but hope is on the horizon
prime minister now we have a vaccine how
important
is this moment when you consider the
damage that
as i was saying earlier the damage that
this virus has done to
uh human life across the uh the planet
the economic damage the social damage to
say nothing of the
the cost in in life and and suffering it
is a fantastic moment
more than 20 000 volunteers got two
doses of the vaccine as part of the
trials
it proved 95 effective at preventing
covid
even among those in their 70s and 80s
side effects were mostly mild a small
minority suffered headaches and fatigue
the independent medicines regulator the
mhra
began work on covid vaccines in june and
for the past two months
has been reviewing more than a thousand
pages of data
on pfizer's trials no corners
have been cut our expert scientists and
clinicians have worked round the clock
carefully methodically pouring over
tables
and analyses and graphs on every single
piece of data
creating a completely new vaccine
usually takes at least 10 years
from design and development through
trials to regulatory review and
production
this has been compressed to less than a
year many stages were done in parallel
and pfizer began vaccine production at
their own risk
even before they knew it worked
800 000 doses of the vaccine should
arrive in the uk
within days 40 million have been ordered
in total
enough to immunize 20 million adults
but the vials have to be transported
from belgium
in special containers at an ultra low
temperature
it's like a picture box they then get
put into
a thermal shipper packed with dry ice
that then maintains the temperature
at minus 70 if unopened for 10 days
the committee which advises the
government on immunisation
says the elderly and frontline health
and care workers
should be first in line we are
suggesting that vaccines are offered
in order to protect people who are most
at risk
of dying from covet 19 as well as to
protect
health and social care services because
by doing so
we also protect lives age is by far
the single most important factor in
terms of risk from corvette 19.
getting rid of social distancing and
other restrictions next year will depend
on tens of millions of us
being vaccinated we need people to take
it
this vaccine isn't going to help you
if you don't take it and you will need
two doses of this vaccine and most of
the others
to have full protection more covered
vaccines could be approved within weeks
the goal then to immunize not just the
uk
but the world fergus walsh bbc news
both downing street and the uk medicines
regulator appeared to contradict a claim
by matt hancock the health secretary
that swift approval of the vaccine had
been possible because of brexit
the mhra said that the supply had been
authorized
using provisions under existing european
law
which are still in place until new
year's day rolling out the vaccine will
be a huge logistical exercise as fergus
was saying there
which could also be affected by a
post-brexit deal as the supplies
will come as we know from belgium our
health editor hugh pim has more details
the nhs is ready though it's a huge task
starting next week vaccinating first its
staff and other priority groups
and those likely to receive the jabs
including nurses who went through the
first wave
know how important that is as working as
an ic you know especially in the first
surge
a lot of the nurses were living away
from home and they were concerned about
bringing it home to their families
if we do have the vaccine it means we
can get back to living a more normal
life
life has not been normal for the past
several months
the official first phase priority list
is headed by care home residents and
carers
followed by the over 80s and frontline
health workers then lower age groups and
younger adults with health conditions
but it'll be nhs in care staff and the
over 80s who actually get it first
health leaders say hospitals will be the
focal point next week
the idea for the first phase is that we
concentrate
on nhs hospitals delivering this vaccine
because of the particular requirements
of the fisa vaccine
but care homes are now wondering what
all this means for their residents and
why they don't now appear to be top of
the list
it's really disappointing and obviously
there's potential implications for our
residents as well
should we get another outbreak of coved
then they're more likely to suffer some
serious consequences of that
one reason is the way the doses are
packed it's emerged that approval by
regulators is still required
to allow them to be broken down into
smaller consignments
to be taken into care homes as soon as
we have the
regulatory sign off that we can do that
we can get the jabs
to the care homes so the gps and the
nurses can then
arrive and give those care home
residents that go for vaccination we
will do that
in northern ireland officials have set
aside a new hospital emergency
department
as one of seven designated vaccination
sites
the scottish government also plans to
prioritize health and care staff
the first vaccines against covert will
be administered in scotland on tuesday
the 8th
of december so you can perhaps
understand why i've
probably smiled more in the last few
minutes than you've seen me do
in several months there's now an
accelerating drive to set up vaccination
hubs for the wider population including
one at epsom racecourse
even a village hall in surrey is being
prepared as a site for vaccinations in
the local community
the new vaccine is on the way from
pfizer's belgian plant
it's a shot in the arm for ministers
they'll hope that brexit doesn't affect
the continued smooth running
of this vital supply chain in the new
year
hubim bbc news with me is our medical
editor fergus walsh has been lots of
talk today focus about
a major milestone how would you describe
what's happened
well you today for the first time we can
say with certainty
that we have a safe and effective covert
vaccine and that's an extraordinary
achievement
to manage that in less than a year now
yes the uk
was the first country to approve it but
it's gone through the hands of a very
well respected
independent regulator so the public can
have confidence in this vaccine
all medicines have side effects but
there were no serious
adverse events on the trial and the
volunteers will be monitored for the
next two years
and you have to set aside any side
effects against the real
known profound dangers of kobe
especially to the elderly
but also the lingering health problems
you get with long covid
and we don't know whether the vaccine
stops people from
passing on the virus we should find that
out in the next six months and we don't
know how long
any protection will last we may need
booster doses
in years to come so the sooner we can
start the mammoth task of immunization
the better fergus once again many thanks
fergus walsh there our medical editor