Covid-19: the British vaccine bet

Too bad if all the scientific evidence is lacking or if certain clinical trials have not even started: the United Kingdom has launched headlong into a historic vaccination campaign, burning steps in the face of the health emergency – the appearance a variant of SARS-CoV-2 between 50% and 70% more contagious. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged “To be used every second of the third reconfinement” announced in disaster on January 4 to vaccinate 13 million people by mid-February. An ultra-pragmatic strategy, supported by the country’s medical authorities and so far causing little national questioning: the aim is to save as many lives as possible and reduce the pressure on the NHS, the British public hospital .

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We must come back to the figures to better understand the national context: the variant of the “Kent” virus has been brought to the attention of the government “December 18”, assured the British Prime Minister during a press conference on Tuesday 5 January. Since Christmas, infections and hospitalizations have exploded, especially in London and the south-east of England, where this mutant circulates the most. More than 30,000 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized on January 6, 30% more than seven days earlier. As of Wednesday, 62,322 new positive cases were recorded and 1,041 additional deaths in 24 hours (bringing the total deaths to more than 77,000). One in 50 people was infected in early January in England according to the ONS, the national statistics body.

The only solution to avoid saturation of the NHS by the end of January: the race for the vaccine against the virus, and especially against its mutants. The UK was the first to launch the vaccine campaign with Pfizer-BioNTech on December 8, and the first to start it on January 4 with the vaccine designed by the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca group. As of January 5, 1.3 million people in the UK had received their first dose of the vaccine, including 650,000 over the age of 80, or 23% of that age group.

First immunity

The green lights were granted following expedited review procedures by the UK Medicines Agency (MHRA). The JCVI, a committee of experts defining the national vaccine strategy, also announced a sudden change on December 30, explaining that it now favors the administration of the second dose of vaccine (for Pfizerè-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca) after twelve weeks, not three weeks, as previously recommended.

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