Covid Vaccine

This contribution is from one of our Resident “Anne Bovett. Information is so important I am using for everybody.

Who will get the Covid vaccine first? JCVI priority list explained, and when the Pfizer vaccine could be ready

Pfizer announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine has proven to be 90 per cent effective during trialsBy Alex Finnis

November 10, 2020 12:52 pm

More than a million people have now died worldwide as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

So news that Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine candidate has proven to be 90 per cent effective during trials is more than welcome.

The UK has already ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine – enough to treat 20 million people, as the vaccination requires two shots three weeks apart.

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There is hope 10 million of those doses could be available before the end of the year, pending expected approval from regulators.

This leads to the question; when we do get hold of the vaccine, who gets it first?

Who will get the coronavirus vaccine first?

While the Government has not produced a formal list of communities and groups who would get a vaccine first, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) – an independent expert advisory committee – produced a report in September on who should be prioritised.

Healthcare workers, care home residents and staff are expected to be top of the list when the vaccine becomes available.

After that it would go to people aged 80 and over, before gradually being rolled out to slightly younger age groups and people with existing conditions that make them high risk.

Here is the order in which it is expected to be released:

1. Older adults resident in a care home and care home workers

2. All those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers

3. All those 75 years of age and over

4. All those 70 years of age and over

5. All those 65 years of age and over

6. High-risk adults under 65 years of age

7. Moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age

8. All those 60 years of age and over

9. All those 55 years of age and over

10. All those 50 years of age and over

11. The rest of the population (priority to be determined)

When could the vaccine be ready?

Mass production of the vaccine has already begun. Up to 50 million doses – enough to vaccinate 25 million people – are expected to be produced before the end of the year.

A further 1.3 billion doses are set to be produced in 2021.

Pfizer plans to apply to the US regulator the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month.

Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, Assistant Professor at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, told i: “If anything happens in the UK this year, it will be ICU staff who get the vaccine, and hospital care staff.” She added anyone beyond that is unlikely.

Boris Johnson said at a press conference on Monday: “I must stress that these are very, very early days, and we’ve talked for a long time about the distant bugle of the scientific cavalry coming over the brow of the hill.

“I can tell you that today that toot, that bugle is louder, but it’s still some way off. We absolutely cannot rely on this news, as a solution.”

How will the vaccine be distributed?

There are reports the vaccine needs to be kept at -80ºC and requires specialist storage and distribution or it could be rendered ineffective.

It means that certain settings, such as those often used for community immunisation, will not work.

The vaccine “will not be useful for distribution at GP surgeries, and will likely require lots of vaccine clinics or administering in hospitals that can store it properly,” said Dr Tait-Burkard.