i've got three children hi uh um here at
home
and they were asking this morning about
father christmas um
and wanting to know whether he will be
front of the queue to get the vaccine
oh absolutely weeks ago now
the train has now slowed down safely it
has now stopped in the station
and
oh if you want if you want if you want
me to do a
um a football analogy then i i've
thought about this
i would say that you know it's it's
clear in the first half
um you know the away team gave us an
absolute battering
and um what we've done now is it's the
70th minute
um we've got one they got a goal and and
in the 70th minute
we've now got an equalizer okay we've
got to
hold our nerve now see if we can get
another goal and
nick it but the key thing is not
to lose it not to throw it away at this
point because we've got a point on the
board
and we've got the draw so from that
perspective
what i'm saying is that we need more
vaccines
but we also need people to realize that
these are not an instant ticket out of
anywhere at the moment
we are in for some hard winter months
where people must continue to follow
the guidance um how would you reassure
them
that the vaccine is safe for them and
for our residents some of whom may be
very frail
to tell you plain and straight that i
genuinely have said to my um
you know 78 year old mum who's probably
um
listening now you know
that mum you must have this vaccine or
any of the vaccines that the mhra
approves as soon as they are available
this is really important because you are
so
at risk i'm very confident in
the assessments the mhra makes how
quickly
after this vaccine and we know it's only
effective after
well pretty much a month when you've had
the first dose
how soon after that can you hug your mum
you should not
expect you you the vaccine to be
protecting you
from infection fully until
probably seven today seven to ten days
after the second infection
but um that doesn't mean
that in every single person we can
assure
complete protection of course we can't
it would depend upon
um not who your mum is but who you are
in terms of how well you're going to
respond to the vaccine
and i think until we are properly
confident
of how the vaccine works and properly
confident
that disease levels are dropping um
that even if you've had the vaccine you
are going to need to continue to follow
all the rules that apply for
a while longer i was just going to ask
on the oxford one i was getting a little
bit excited there because there is some
discussion that that might be given
approval before christmas can you give
us any indication about that one
i'm hopeful again that
um that would happen but it's entirely
out of my hands
it's in the hands of the regulator the
mhra
we've take you know they take a very
firm line and we take a very firm line
that they are independent that they must
do what they do
in their own time and if that takes them
a few weeks
that's fine if it has to take them a few
months because they've got to ask
further questions or they need a piece
more data from the manufacturer
that's also fine we go at the speed of
science on that one we do not rush them
in any way shape or form
will the two doses be enough will that
for lifelong immunity
will it be an annual thing like the flu
jab the very important answer is we
don't know yet
it's as simple as that
obviously these vaccine trials
are you know hot off the press
um and there's this pressing public
health need
to get the vaccines into service
and already we're sure we're seeing that
after kind of you know
three months follow-up um then already
there's this massive protective effect
um for example from the visa vaccine
three children i um here at home and
they were asking this morning about
father christmas um and wanting to know
whether he will be
front of the queue to get the vaccine oh
absolutely um the jcbi made a very
special case for father christmas
and he is going to be absolutely the top
of our list