Category Archives: Vaccines and immunisation

Strict Covid restrictions could last months, Boris Johnson signals

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PM says lifting lockdown is subject to ‘lots of caveats’ as figures show 1m people in England have Covid

Britain could face harsh restrictions for many months to come, Boris Johnson and his chief scientists warned as figures suggested more than 1 million people in England are infected with coronavirus, or one in every 50.

The prime minister said the plan to emerge from a newly-imposed national lockdown in mid-February was subject to “lots of caveats, lot of ifs”. He refused to guarantee that children would be fully back at school before the summer, calling this a “fundamental hope”.

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Boris Johnson says more than 1.1m people in England have been vaccinated – video

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The prime minister said 1.3 million people across the UK have been vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 650,000 people over 80 – 23% of the cohort - have received their jab, he added. Johnson also pledged that 1,000 more vaccination stations would be open by the end of the week


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Covid vaccinations: slow start around world brings dose of reality

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Burst of optimism over approvals has been followed by delays, shortages and bureaucratic errors

The global introduction of newly approved coronavirus vaccines has been marked by delays, shortages and bureaucratic errors as it has become clear that many governments will miss their targets for mass inoculation.

The burst of optimism that arrived with approvals of new vaccines – encouraged by unrealistic expectations raised by politicians – is colliding with the reality of the challenge of vaccinating a large part of the world’s population.

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US pharmacist who tried to ruin Covid vaccine doses is a conspiracy theorist, police say

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Officers say Steven Brandenburg told investigators he intentionally tried to spoil the doses because he believed the vaccine could change DNA

A Wisconsin pharmacist who was convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released on Monday.

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First patient receives Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine – video

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An 82-year-old retired maintenance manager has become the first person in the world outside clinical trials to receive the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.

Brian Pinker, a dialysis patient, received the jab at 7.30am on Monday from Sam Foster, a nurse at Churchill hospital, part of the Oxford University hospitals NHS foundation trust.

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Analysis: is it wise for England to mix and match Covid vaccines?

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US experts warn against plan to give different second jab if supplies run low

The UK is setting the pace around the world in the approval and use of Covid vaccines but, while other countries watch intently, not all are yet prepared to embrace what looks like public health pragmatism rather than strict adherence to evidence.

Britain is the first country in the world to approve and use the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, just as it was first with Pfizer/BioNTech’s. In a further trailblazing decision, it is giving everyone a first shot of either of those vaccines, with the second shot delayed to 12 weeks afterwards instead of the three- or four-week interval in the trials.

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How is the Oxford Covid vaccine being deployed in England?

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With jab to be administered to public for first time, we look at key questions about its rollout

The biggest vaccination programme in the UK’s history will receive a major boost on Monday, with the first use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. Here we look at some key questions about how it will be deployed in England.

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India’s approval of covid vaccines triggers mass immunisation drive

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Green light for Oxford vaccine alongside domestic Covaxin hailed as ‘decisive turning point’ by PM

India has granted emergency approval to both the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and the domestically developed Covaxin, signalling the start of one of the largest Covid-19 immunisation drives in the world.

At a press conference on Sunday, the drugs controller general of India said the decision to approve both the Oxford vaccine and Covaxin, which is produced by the Indian company Bharat Biotech and was part-funded by the government, had come after “careful examination” of the data.

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England health officials defend contingency plan to mix Covid vaccines

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PHE says it is reasonable to mix the two approved vaccines in exceptional circumstances

Officials have defended England’s vaccine regimen after details of a contingency plan to mix the two approved jabs in a small number of cases emerged.

Public Health England’s Covid “green book” recommends that “it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule” if the same vaccine used for the first dose is not available. But it adds: “There is no evidence on the interchangeability of the Covid-19 vaccines although studies are under way.”

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What difference will Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine make in UK?

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We look at how the introduction of a new vaccine in the fight against Covid will work

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is central to the government’s plans for ending social distancing in the UK and returning to some sort of normality. It has invested in seven different vaccines, but the biggest order is for 100m doses of the AstraZeneca jab, most of which will be manufactured in the UK. While the prime minister was jubilant that the UK was first in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, he is now able to claim a British triumph. More to the point is the ease of use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Unlike Pfizer’s, it does not have to be kept in the long term at -70C. Pfizer’s vaccine can be stored in a fridge for five days, but AstraZeneca’s can be kept for months at fridge temperature, which is 2-8C and will be easy to take to care homes to administer to residents, the first priority group for vaccination.

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BioNTech criticises EU failure to order enough Covid vaccine

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Firm races to fill potential gap left by bloc’s gamble on several vaccines being approved

BioNtech has criticised the EU’s failure to order more doses of its coronavirus vaccine, saying it is now racing with its US partner, Pfizer, to boost production amid fears of a European “gap” left by the lack of other approved vaccines.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first to be approved by the bloc late last month, after being accepted by the UK, Canada and the US. They and other countries have also since approved the Moderna or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, leaving the EU trailing behind.

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World leaders urged to make Covid vaccine available to millions of refugees

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Global humanitarian figures and NGOs call for rollout to take in all people for the global public good

Global humanitarian figures and NGOs have urged world leaders to urgently make Covid-19 vaccinations available to millions of refugees and others displaced by war, as the pandemic continues to overwhelm some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

The impact of the contagion has sharply intensified across the Middle East in recent weeks, matching soaring global numbers. However, it has been further amplified by drastically underresourced medical responses that cannot cope with the numbers of dying or seriously ill.

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Questions hang over UK’s rollout of Oxford/AstraZeneca jab

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Analysis: regulator surprises by approving 12-week gap between first and second shots of vaccine as well as Pfizer/BioNTech shot

It’s a pragmatic solution to an incredibly urgent problem – how to immunise very large numbers of people at risk from a rampaging variant of Covid-19 in the shortest possible time. The answer that government advisers have come up with is to give them all – more than 20 million of them – a single shot of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine so that they have some protection and postpone the second dose to three months afterwards, when hopefully there will be plenty of vaccine available for boosters.

Related: How well does the Oxford vaccine work? What we know so far

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‘Vaccine diplomacy’ sees Egypt roll out Chinese coronavirus jab

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A lack of trial data transparency from China has raised concerns, but the country is confidently pushing ahead

When Egypt’s health ministry sent out an invitation to doctors to be vaccinated against Covid-19, they neglected to make clear it was a clinical trial.

Instead, it assured them that two Covid-19 vaccines developed by China’s National Biotec Group, part of a state-owned conglomerate known as Sinopharm, had no side-effects and that “the minister of health was vaccinated today, and orders were issued to vaccinate all doctors and workers who wish to be vaccinated”.

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‘That was easy’: Kamala Harris receives Covid-19 vaccine – video

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The US vice-president-elect received her first injected dose of the coronavirus vaccine live on television, one week after Joe Biden received his. Describing the process as 'relatively painless', Harris urged all Americans to get vaccinated. 'It's about saving your life, the life of your family members, and the life of your community,' she said

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Biden criticizes Trump’s Covid vaccine rollout as Harris gets inoculation

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At a coronavirus briefing, the president-elect warned distribution ‘is falling far behind’ and vowed to ramp up vaccination efforts

Joe Biden has lambasted the Trump administration’s vaccine rollout, warning that distribution “is falling behind, far behind”, hours after Kamala Harris received her first dose of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine live on television as part of officials’ ongoing efforts to show the public that the vaccinations are safe.

“A few weeks ago the Trump administration suggested that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of December,” Biden said, at a Covid-19 briefing in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday. “With only a few days left in December, we have only vaccinated a few million so far.”

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Global report: India finds six cases of new UK variant; South Africa bans alcohol sales

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Germany says infectious variant has been present since November; Spain sets up Covid vaccine register

India has found six cases of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus in people arriving from Britain, while South Africa reimposed a ban on alcohol sales and ordered the closure of all bars as it battles a resurgence of the virus, including another new variant.

All six of the infected people in India are in isolation and their fellow travellers are being traced, the health ministry said.

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Covid vaccine uptake high despite concerns over hesitancy

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Experts fear misinformation and development worries could undermine efforts to control pandemic

Uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine has been high among those offered it, doctors say, despite fears that vaccine hesitancy could undermine efforts to control the pandemic.

Experts have feared mass uptake of the jab could be jeopardised by widespread misinformation, concerns among the public about the speed at which the vaccine has been developed and approved, and lack of trust in vaccines and the pharmaceutical companies and governments calling for it.

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Coronavirus live news: British tourists flee Swiss ski resort quarantine; inoculation in EU begins

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Latest updates: first vaccine doses administered across Europe; Germany rollout delayed after potential irregularities in cooling of Pfizer shot

Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US coronavirus taskforce said that he believes the Covid-19 variant detected in the UK must be taken “very seriously” but is not likely to cause more serious illness or be resistant to vaccines.

He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it [a] more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.”

The UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme will resume on Monday, after a pause on Christmas Day and the weekend.

The latest figures show that a total of 70,572 people in the UK have died from Covid-19. The number is likely to rise further on Tuesday, as authorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have not released data over the festive period.

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‘Let’s get vaccinated’: Europe rolls out Covid-19 vaccine – video report

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European nations launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday, with pensioners and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. With surveys pointing to high levels of hesitancy about the vaccine in countries from France to Poland, leaders of the EU27 are promoting it as the best chance of getting back to something like normal life in 2021

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