Age was the single most important factor, and everyone older than 50 will get the Pfizer vaccine by the time the end of phase one
Residents of care homes in the country, as well as their carers will be first in the nation to receive the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus in the UK, it has now been confirmed.
The UK government’s Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has confirmed that its priority list for the first phase of the country’s large-scale COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which will begin as early as next week.
This comes after the United Kingdom has become the first country in the world so far to approve the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 to be used. The vaccine has been given the go-ahead by the health regulator MHRA and will be rolled out from early next week.
The JCVI’s priority list for the first phase of the vaccine rollout is as follows:
1 – Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2 – All those 80 years of age and over. Frontline health and social care workers
3 – All those 75 years of age and over
4 – All those 70 years of age and over. Clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5 – All those 65 years of age and over
6 – All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7 – All those 60 years of age and over
8 – All those 55 years of age and over
9 – All those 50 years of age and over
Two groups will not receive the vaccine:
1 – Pregnant women
2 – Children under 16
The testing was “equivalent to all international standards”, Dr Raine said, adding: “The public can be absolutely confident that the standards that we have worked to are equivalent to standards around the world.”
Explaining the priorities for who will get the vaccine, Professor Wei Shen Lim said: “Vaccines are offered to protect people who are most at risk from dying of COVID-19, as well as to protect health and social care services, because by doing so we also protect lives.”
This comes after the deputy chief medical officer for England, Professor Van Tam, has said that he will be encouraging his own mum to get a COVID-19 vaccine when one is approved, as he assured the British public that safety standards would not be compromised in the face of the public health emergency.
“The vaccine appears to be safe and well-tolerated, and there were no clinically concerning safety observations,” according to the JCVI, which has added that the data shows that it is highly effective across all of the nation’s age groups.
Studies have now shown that the Pfizer/BioNtech jab is 95% effective at protecting against the novel coronavirus and works within all age groups, and the UK government has announced that it has secured 40 million doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine, which will need to be refrigerated at -70C (-94F).
