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Following the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine last month, U.K. citizens today began receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
First In the World
According to The Associated Press, the U.K. is the first nation in the world to use the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca together with Oxford University.
Regulators approved the vaccine last week, the BBC reported.
The first person to receive the vaccine was 82-year-old Brian Pinker, a dialysis patient at Oxford University hospital.
The first jabs have also been given in Scotland and Wales this week, according to the BBC.
“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,” Pinker said via a National Health Service (NHS) statement, the AP reported.
Emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was authorised last week.
Britain has the rights to 100 million doses of the new vaccine, a cheaper and simpler-to-use option than some of the others out there; it doesn’t require the extreme low storage temperatures of the Pfizer vaccine, the AP reported.
Like the Pfizer vaccine, the Oxford variation requires two shots.
However, according to the AP, the U.K.’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said a first dose should be given to as many people as possible, rather than saving doses for a second shot. The committee also extended the time between doses from 21 days to a maximum of 12 weeks.
Preliminary results indicate the Pfizer shot is 95% effective while the Oxford vaccine is 62% to 90% effective, according to a BBC report.
Who Gets It First?
The Oxford vaccine is being administered in just a few hospitals to start as authorities monitor for adverse reactions, the AP reported. Hundreds of vaccination sites are expected to open later this week, though, in addition to the existing 700-plus sites already operating.
The first people to receive the Oxford vaccine will be the elderly and those with certain illnesses — those at highest risk of suffering from severe COVID-19 symptoms.
According to the BBC, groups will be able to receive the vaccine in the following order:
- Residents and staff in care homes for the elderly
- Those 80 and older; front-line health care and social care workers
- Those 75 and older
- Those 70 and older; clinically vulnerable individuals age 16 to 69
- Those 16 to 64 in an at-risk group
- Those 60 and older
- Those 55 and older
- Those 50 and older
- Everyone age 16 to 49
Indemnity
As the Pfizer vaccine was rolled out in early December, the U.K. government granted the company legal indemnity to protect it from civil lawsuits in the event patients receiving the vaccine experienced issues.
While the specifics surrounding legal indemnity for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine aren’t known, Reuters reported Britain has agreed to take on the liability in nearly all cases when claims are made against pharmaceutical companies providing COVID-19 vaccines, according to the National Audit Office.
The NAO said vaccine deals have been signed for five candidate companies — Pfizer, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Valneva, Novavax and Moderna — and is working with Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson.
Senior AstraZeneca executive Ruud Dobber told Reuters most countries the company has supply deals with have given the company protection from COVID-19 vaccine liability claims.
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in … four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” Dobber said.
“In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest,” Dobber said, while noting vaccine safety and tolerability were top priorities. He would not name the specific countries he was referring to.
According to Reuters, EU officials said product liability has been a contentious issue in efforts to secure deals for the Pfizer, Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in Europe.
The United States has an existing law excluding tort claims related to products that assist in controlling a public health crisis.
Spreading Fast
The rollout of the new vaccine comes as the U.K. is fighting a new, faster-spreading strain of coronavirus.
More than 50,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the U.K. for the sixth day in a row on Sunday, according to the BBC.
In response, Labour called for yet another national lockdown in England.
Lockdowns are already in place in Wales and Northern Ireland, according to the BBC, and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced a new lockdown will begin at at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
Do you plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to you? Let us know in the comment section below.
Check back daily for the most recent U.K. class action lawsuit and consumer protection news.
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