The United Kingdom Approves Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine for COVID-19
The COVID-19 vaccination developed by Pfizer/BioNTech has been approved in the United Kingdom.
BBC News broke the news early Wednesday morning that the MHRA has deemed the vaccination safe for distribution. This comes after trials showed the vaccine to be 95% effective. On Twitter, British Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, celebrated that the U.K. will be the first country to have the vaccine for supply and announced that vaccinations will start as early as next week.
Help is on its way.
The MHRA has formally authorised the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19.
The NHS stands ready to start vaccinating early next week.
The UK is the first country in the world to have a clinically approved vaccine for supply.— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) December 2, 2020
Pfizer and BioNTech had requested an Emergency Use Authorization with the FDA. In a press release, Pfizer stated that an agreement with the U.K. was made to supply 40 million doses of the medication. This amount can vaccinate 20 million people, with two doses per person (each dose is given three weeks apart).
The UK has already ordered 40m doses – enough to vaccinate 20m people with two shots each. Around 10m doses should be available soon. #CovidVaccine— Kamal Ahmed (@bbckamal) December 2, 2020
BBC’s report stated that the elderly will be amongst the first citizens to receive the vaccines. Senior care centers were hit the hardest across the world during the start of the pandemic. The frontline healthcare workers will get vaccinated in the first phase as well. The priority is to have mass vaccination for groups over 50-years-old and with underlying conditions, and those under 50 will have access to the vaccine in 2021.
Positive news we’ve all been waiting for – Regulator, the MHR has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine with phase 1 roll-out starting here with priority groups, including those over 80yrs, care homes and staff, and our heroic health & social care workers.— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) December 2, 2020
Reaction to the news has been mostly positive of social media. Many acknowledge that the U.K. will go down in history for taking the lead on the fight against COVID-19. However, there have been some critics who feel the development of the vaccine was rushed. With Pfizer being an American company and BioNTech being German, some were skeptical about the United Kingdom is the first to approve instead of one of the home countries.
Pfizer is an American company.
BioNTech is a German company.
They both developed a #CovidVaccine.
America hasn’t approved it yet.
Germany too has not approved yet.
But the UK has.
And Europe calls this hasty.— Sanket Upadhyay (@sanket) December 2, 2020
Research showed that the vaccination does not take its full effect until up to four weeks after the initial dose. With Britain being the first to be administered the vaccine, the rest of the world will be closely watching how distribution is handled and if there are side effects. Until the vaccine is available here in the U.S., we can continue to slow the spread by practicing good hygiene and social distancing.
