uh it is almost a year since humanity
has been tormented by
covid across the world economic output
has plummeted
and a million and a half people have
died all the time we've been waiting and
hoping
for the day when the searchlights of
science would pick out
our invisible enemy and give us the
power to
stop that enemy from making us ill and
now the scientists have done it
and they've used the virus itself to
perform a kind of
biological jujitsu to turn the virus
on itself in the form of a of a vaccine
in a
an idea that i think was pioneered in
this country by edward jenner
in 1796 and today
we can announce that the government has
accepted the recommendation from the
independent
medicines and healthcare products
regulatory agency
to approve the pfizer biontech
vaccine for distribution across the
united kingdom
after months of clinical trials
involving thousands of people
to ensure that the vaccine meets the
strictest
internationally recognized standards of
safety quality
and effectiveness thanks to the
fantastic work of
kate bingham and the vaccines task force
we've purchased
more than 350 million doses of seven
different vaccine candidates and the uk
was the first country in the world to
pre-order supplies
of this pfizer vaccine securing 40
million doses
through our winter plan the nhs has been
preparing for the biggest program
of mass vaccination in the history of
the uk and that's going to begin
next week and in line with the advice of
the independent
joint committee on vaccination and
immunization
the first phase will include care home
residents
health and care staff the elderly and
those who are
clinically extremely vulnerable but
there are immense
logistical challenges the virus has got
to be stored
at minus 70 degrees each person needs
two injections
three weeks apart so it will inevitably
take
some months before all the most
vulnerable
are protected long cold months so
it's all the more vital that as we
celebrate this scientific achievement
we're not
carried away uh with over optimism
or fall into the naive belief
that the struggle is over it's not we've
got to stick to
our winter plan a comprehensive program
to suppress the virus
protect the nhs and the vulnerable keep
education
and the economy going and use treatments
testing
and vaccines to enable us to return to
much closer to normal by the spring