UK one of the first countries to start vaccinating against COVID-19

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London, 2nd December: The United Kingdom is one of the first countries to start vaccinating its population.

Baaghi TV: According to reports, Pfizer and BioNTech say they’ve got permission for emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine in Britain, the world’s first coronavirus shot.

This makes Britain one of the first countries to begin vaccinating its population as it tries to curb Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the programme would begin early next week. He said that hospitals were already ready to receive it.

“It is very good news,” Hancock said. He took to his Twitter handle to make the announcement:

According to reports from the international media, other countries aren’t far behind, the US and the European Union also are considering the Pfizer shot along with a similar vaccine made by competitor Moderna Inc.

British regulators are also vetting another shot made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

British media have reported that hospitals in England have been told to get ready to start doing vaccinations for medical workers as early as next week.

Pfizer said it would immediately begin shipping limited supplies to the UK and has been gearing up for even wider distribution if given a similar nod by the US Food and Drug Administration, a decision expected as early as next week.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called the UK decision a historic moment.

“We are focusing on moving with the same level of urgency to safely supply a high-quality vaccine around the world,” Bourla said in a statement.

While the UK has ordered enough Pfizer vaccine for 20 million people, it’s not clear how many will arrive by the end of the year. Adding to the distribution challenges, the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures and it is said that two doses three weeks apart are required for protection.

The UK government says frontline health care workers and nursing home residents will be first in line to get vaccinated, followed by older adults.

But UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned saying, “we must first navigate a hard winter of restrictions to try to curb the virus until there’s enough vaccine to go around”.

The shots made by US-based Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech were tested in tens of thousands of people, and their early results suggested that the vaccine is 95 per cent effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease.

The companies told regulators that of the first 170 infections detected in study volunteers, only eight were among people who had received the actual vaccine and the rest had gotten a dummy shot.

“This is an extraordinarily strong protection,” Dr Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s CEO, recently told The Associated Press.

The companies also reported that there were no serious side effects, although vaccine recipients may experience temporary pain and flu-like reactions immediately after injections.

Experts still say that its final testing must be completed, as the vaccine used for an emergency is still experimental.

Still to be determined is how long the protection lasts and whether the Pfizer-BioNTech shots protect against people spreading the coronavirus without showing symptoms.

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