in the last half an hour um the first
astrazeneca
vaccine has been delivered in the uk in
the last hour or so um
it was given to an 82 year old patient
at the churchill hospital in oxford we
can see him now he's brian pinker
um he describes himself as oxford born
and bred and he said should i read you
the statement it's rather lovely he says
i'm so pleased to be getting the kobe
vaccine today really proud that it's one
was invented in oxford
the nurses doctors and staff today have
all been brilliant and i can now really
look forward to celebrating my 48th
wedding anniversary with my wife
shirley later this year happy
anniversary
um sam foster was the chief nurse there
who was administering the vaccine
this morning and we've spoken to her
already on bbc breakfast this morning
she was talking to our medical editor
fergus walsh she was back outside the
hospital in oxford this morning
incredibly busy ferguson a really big
step forward this morning
it is a huge step forward because this
vaccine
not just for the uk but globally will
have
a major impact um it is far cheaper than
the fisa jab far
easier to transport and store it can be
transported and kept
in a fridge unlike the pfizer jab which
has to be
moved at minus 70. so it's going to have
a big impact it can go into
every care home easily within the next
few weeks
and it can go to anywhere in the world
because astrazeneca has said it will
produce
3 billion doses at cost
this year and it's promised also never
to make a profit from low
and middle-income countries well i'm
delighted to say that the global head of
clinical trials
of the oxford astrazeneca vaccine press
andrew pollard is with me professor
paula
i think you've just received your dose
too i have just received my dose as a
health care worker here in oxford
and i'm really delighted to have been
able to do so it's an absolute triumph
for all of the team who've been working
on the vaccine this year and we are just
a few hundred meters from where
the first trials were done in april a
few hundred meters from where the team
at the lister designed this
i mean extraordinary that a university
albeit a prestigious one should produce
a vaccine in the space of a year that
could have
an incredible impact on bringing this
pandemic under control
it's an amazing academic collaboration
that brings us
not just here in oxford but at the trial
sites around the uk
and internationally with academic groups
driving forward this program to to meet
this
point today where we see the first doses
rolled out so when you saw
brian pinker getting it getting his jab
that the vaccine approved what was
running through your mind then i
i was so pleased to see someone here in
oxford who's
been brought up in oxford so excited to
receive the first days
of the vaccine which was developed here
and i know it's just been limited to a
few
centers on day one why is that
but it's been limited to a few centers
just to get started and to work out all
the logistics
but i'm hoping that the nhs will be set
up for a major role out over the weeks
ahead
now in terms of the sort of level of
protection it gives people
are getting one dose and then they're
getting their second dose
12 weeks later now do you have any idea
what level of protection there's been
all sorts of numbers flying around
what level of protection it will give
people well in in the clinical trials
once the immune response kicks in and
that takes a few weeks after you've been
vaccinated
we've seen up until the second day so
around about 70 percent protection
and there is also potentially protection
against severe disease
which is really more important well the
the information from the trials really
shows that the vaccine
is protecting people against severe
infection and hospitalization
and in fact after immune responses
kicked in we didn't see anyone
who ended up in hospital um from that
point onwards
and the 70 percent is really against
mild disease that where we're seeing
that protection
so i think this is extremely good news
now
in terms of of people coming forward
there are something like 30 million
people in the priority groups over 50s
frontline healthcare workers like
yourself
and then people with underlying health
conditions
how soon do you think people
that group will be protected well
there's a huge logistical challenge
but i think the nhs is very much up for
it and there's lots of work going on on
supply that astrazeneca is responsible
for
so i'm optimistic that we're going to
get there in the months ahead and
in terms of long-term protection because
that people will eventually get their
second dose
um you i think found from your trials
that a bigger gap
actually may actually have given better
overall protection but we certainly saw
better immune responses with a longer
gap
at the moment the numbers are a bit
small to be absolutely sure that
translates into better protection but we
think it should
and so i i think there's no harm in
having a longer gap and there may be a
benefit as well now
you're also a doctor here you've you've
seen what's going on in hospitals
it's pretty serious at the moment i
think this is a it's a really critical
moment we
we are at the point of being overwhelmed
by this disease
so i think it gives us a bit of hope but
i think we've got some tough weeks ahead
okay professor pollard thank you very
much indeed so as professor pollard said
the nhs really under pressure so
the rollout of this vaccine really can't
come soon enough but it is a
bright moment a bright spot in what
otherwise is some very
grim news about what is happening to the
nhs the intense pressure
it is under from the new variant of
coronavirus