Great Britain: Corona vaccinations from next week

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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The vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer cleared all the hurdles in the UK. The British regulatory authority for pharmaceuticals was the first in the world to issue the necessary emergency approval. The first British should be vaccinated in December. The European Union is still waiting for a decision by the authorities.

For the EU, the European Medicines Agency Ema wants to make a decision on an approval recommendation for the corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer in December. The agency announced on Tuesday that the results of the examination should be available by December 29th at the latest. Germany and the EU have already signed a framework agreement for the purchase of up to 300 million doses of the vaccine.

Vaccine for 20 million

50 hospitals and other vaccination centers are ready to start vaccination in Great Britain. The 40 million vaccine doses can protect 20 million people - the drug has to be administered twice. Great Britain has a population of almost 67 million. According to the Ministry of Health, the military is helping with logistics.

The first 800,000 corona vaccine doses should be available in the UK as early as next week. "At the beginning of the week we will start the vaccination program against Covid-19 here in this country," said Health Minister Matt Hancock on Wednesday the Sky News in London. He described the transport and storage of the vaccine as a challenge, because the agent had to be stored at minus 70 degrees.

95 percent protection against disease

According to the company, the vaccine has an effectiveness that offers 95 percent protection against the disease Covid-19. To what extent the vaccine protects not only the outbreak of the disease but also against the infection itself is still unclear. This would not only protect the vaccinated person, but also prevent the virus from being passed on, which is the prerequisite for the hoped-for herd immunity.

Highly effective even with seniors

The vaccine has so far shown practically no serious side effects, the companies said. It works equally well across all age groups and other demographic differences. The vaccination protection for people who are over 65 years old is over 94 percent. In the case of many other known vaccines, the elderly, who are particularly at risk, often develop less good immune protection.

60,000 corona deaths in Great Britain

The UK has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic and many of the chronically underfunded hospitals have already reached their capacity limits. According to the Department of Health, almost 60,000 people in the UK have already died from Covid-19. A high number of unreported cases is expected. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is accused of having reacted too late and inadequately to the corona crisis. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the emergency approval “fantastic”.

China and Russia are already vaccinating

In most of the world, a vaccine is not yet available for widespread use. China and Russia, among others, have been vaccinating certain population groups with the vaccines they have developed for some time, although the phase III studies have not yet been completed. Biontech and Pfizer emphasized that, in contrast, their vaccine was approved based on data from a large clinical trial involving tens of thousands of subjects.

(dpa / cf)

Tags:  therapies menshealth womenshealth