now countries around the world are
rolling out vaccination programs in an
effort to stop the spread of the
coronavirus
but many countries including the u.s and
germany are falling
far behind projected goals and that's
making governments reconsider the way
they give people the jabs
a familiar sight from coronavirus
testing
but in this florida drive-by people are
now receiving something much more
hopeful
vaccine shots and yet the race to
inoculate millions of people across the
world against covet 19
is off to a slower and messier start
than expected
insufficient supplies and complex
logistics
are bogging down the process many
countries including the us and germany
are falling far behind projected roll
out speeds
the main issue is that the biotech
pfizer vaccine
the first one to be widely approved
requires cumbersome refrigeration
at extreme temperatures and two shots
within three weeks
to be the most effective this has
sparked a debate among experts about
whether the time between doses should be
stretched to three months
some argue that it is better to give
many people some resistance to the virus
than to give fewer people full
protection
the immediate urgency is for
rapid and high levels of vaccine uptake
jcvi therefore recommends that delivery
of the first
dose of covet 19 vaccine should be
prioritized
for both the pfizer beyond type vaccine
and the astrozenica vaccine
britain recently became the first
country to authorize the vaccine
developed by
oxford university and astrazeneca
trial data suggests it is somewhat less
effective
but much easier to store and transport
it just needs normal fridge temperature
rather than the minus 70
super cold storage that the fisa vaccine
requires
experts say it could change the
situation entirely
unlike its biotech pfizer competitor
this vaccine is more effective when the
second dose is given three months later
leaving enough time to inoculate much of
the population
and endow them with partial immunity the
uk plans to vaccinate a million people
per week from january 4th
but what may turn out to be the most
promising development on the horizon
is still pending approval johnson and
johnson's
jansen vaccine requires only one dose
that could simplify logistics
considerably if approved this single
shot jab could be in use by february
the pressures on governments to speed up
vaccinations
as the number of deaths linked to covet
19 rises at an alarming rate
and for more i'm joined now by jonat
campo a medical teacher and author in
carlisle in northwest england happy new
year to you thank you for joining us
the british government will start
vaccination with the newly approved
oxford astrazeneca vaccine on monday
from the beginning they plan to delay
the second dose to get more people at
least
their first shot do you find this to be
a good idea
yes very much so when they look back at
the data from the clinical trials that
were done on the oxford vaccine
they found that three weeks after the
first dose people had
64 protection against getting an
infection
which of course is great but they also
found out that no one was hospitalized
three weeks after the first dose of the
oxford vaccine
so this is protecting against severe
disease and hospitalization and
subsequent death
this is the really important thing
because the health service at the moment
in the uk
is under severe strain it could be
overwhelmed shortly so we need
to keep people out of hospital and all
the data so
so far is showing that one dose of the
oxford vaccine
will do just that what are the risks
involved in because surely some people
who've been promised a two
vaccine regime who only get one will
think well i'm not getting the full deal
am i
that's right they're not getting the
full deal but what we need to do is
protect as many people as quickly as
possible to prevent
severe illness and people going into
hospital and people dying
now the immunity will be boosted when
people have the second dose of the
oxford vaccine it will go up to perhaps
70 or 80 percent
but the key thing the immunity will last
for much longer but because we're in a
state of national emergency it makes
perfect sense to give as much coverage
as possible
starting with the people that are most
vulnerable and stopping them getting
sick and stopping them getting
hospitalized
i believe this is absolutely the right
thing to do at this time
of course astrazeneca's approval in the
uk is a game changer
can we expect to see it also approved in
the european union
well i really really hope so the
european medicines agency as far as we
know are not actively considering this
at the moment and i really don't
understand what's going on here
there needs to be proactivity because
europe has pre-ordered
400 million doses of the oxford
astrazeneca vaccine
and they need it desperately i really
hope this is sorted out
and in the meantime the british
government has also advertised or
advocated that the fisa vaccine should
be given as a single dose as well
because that gives 52 protection against
getting the infection
and it looks like it gives 90 protection
against getting
severe disease and hospitalization so i
think this is something the
national authorities and the inter and
the international groupings need to
think of
really urgently to give one dose of the
fisa vaccine
to be going on with and then give the
second dose within three months
john campbell thank you very much there
for us from carlisle in england
and let's turn now to some of the latest
developments in the coronavirus pandemic
the world health organization has
granted emergency use to the german u.s
developed biontech pfizer vaccine this
is likely to lead to more countries
launching vaccination programs
in the united states vaccinations have
fallen short of the government's target
for 2020 as we heard
less than three million americans got
the job instead of the planned
20 million by the end of the year and
three quarters of england's population
are now
under the strictest level of pandemic
restrictions the uk has seen
nearly a thousand covet 19 deaths for
two days running