Covid vaccine UK: Man, 82, first to get Oxford AstraZeneca jab

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A blame game erupted today over who is responsible for the slow roll-out of Oxford University’s vaccine after Boris Johnson pointed the finger at Britain’s medical regulator and Matt Hancock suggested that it was the manufacturer’s fault.

The Government appears to be trying to pass the buck for the vaccination programme before it has even had a chance to fail, with the Prime Minister — who is set to unveil another national lockdown tonight — saying the scheme was being stalled because officials were waiting for batches of the jab to be approved by the regulator.  

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was the first in the world to approve both the Pfizer and the Oxford jabs — but it has stipulated that every batch of vaccine has to be individually inspected and quality controlled when it reaches the UK before being injected into Brits’ arms.

Wading into the row today, Dr June Raine, chief of the MHRA, dismissed the PM’s claim that the batch approval process was stalling the roll out and suggested it was issues further back in the supply chain. Dr Raine said her team was ‘nimble and quick’ and could approve a batch in under 24 hours. 

She told the BBC: ‘It’s a supply chain that goes right back from the manufacturer, right through to MHRA, and then on to the clinical bedside or where the vaccines are delivered, so we are a step on the road but our capacity is there, I’m very clear about that… I was really proud last Wednesday when we approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, that we had approved the first batch the night before. We are that nimble and that quick.’ 

Boris Johnson is due to address the nation tonight at 8pm, when he is expected to put the UK into another full national lockdown amid spiralling cases of the mutant strain of the virus that emerged in Kent over autumn. Vaccines are now deemed the only way out of the endless cycle of lockdowns that have decimated the economy.

Matt Hancock also appeared to point the finger at AstraZeneca, the British drug firm responsible for making and distributing the Oxford jab, for the slow scale-up. The Health Secretary insisted the NHS was ready to administer doses of the Oxford University vaccine as quickly as it received them, but he added: ‘The supply isn’t there yet’.

And Professor Stephen Powis, director of NHS England, added: ‘If we get two million per week, our aim is to get two million into people’s arms a week.’ The NHS today started to dish out Oxford/AstraZeneca’s game-changing Covid vaccine in what has been called a ‘pivotal moment’ in the fight against the pandemic, with an 82-year-old dialysis patient becoming the first person to receive the jab.

Brian Pinker, a retired maintenance manager who describes himself as Oxford born and bred, revealed he was ‘so pleased’ to get the vaccine and was ‘really proud’ it was developed in his city. Mr Pinker is now looking forward to celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary next month with wife Shirley.

Only 530,000 doses of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine will be available for vulnerable people this week with ‘tens of millions’ promised by April. 

AstraZeneca bosses have pledged to deliver 2million doses a week by mid-January. But that ambitious target may be further off than hoped, with fears that the UK won’t receive enough supplies until February because of ‘capacity issues’ in manufacturing. 

Matt Hancock — who today revealed increasing the country’s manufacturing capacity was ‘a big medium-term project’ — also promised the ‘bureaucracy’ involved in signing up to volunteer would be slashed. It was revealed last week that thousands of retired medics desperate to join the frontline and dish out the jabs were tied up in red tape and blocked from joining the national effort, which will involve the Armed Forces.

Fears are also mounting that Covid vaccines could be ineffective against the South African mutation. Mr Hancock said today he was ‘incredibly worried’ about the strain, which has already been spotted in Britain and is claimed to be even more infectious than the Kent variant that is spreading rapidly across the UK. 

Mr Hancock told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: ‘I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant and that’s why we took the action that we did to restrict all flights from South Africa and movement from South Africa and in fact to insist that anybody who’d been to South Africa to isolate.

‘This is a very, very significant problem, in fact I spoke to my South African opposite number over Christmas and one of the reasons they know they have a problem is because, like us, they have an excellent genomic-scientific [programme] to be able to study the details of the virus and it is even more of a problem than the UK new variant.’

Sir John Bell, one of the Government’s coronavirus advisers, yesterday warned there was a ‘big question mark’ over whether any of the jabs could protect against the mutation. There is no evidence the South African variant is more deadly or causes more severe illness than regular Covid.

Mr Pinker, receiving his vaccine this morning, said: ‘I am so pleased to be getting the Covid vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford. 

‘I never thought for a second that I wouldn’t have it, I was just lucky to be the first one.

‘It gives us the hope we can get back to doing some of the things we enjoy – like getting on the bus to Milton Keynes and Aylesbury and going out for the day, or just popping to the bookies. 

‘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.’ 

Sam Foster, chief nursing officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who administered the vaccine to Mr Pinker, said: ‘It was a real privilege to be able to deliver the first Oxford vaccine at the Churchill Hospital here in Oxford, just a few hundred metres from where it was developed.

‘We look forward to vaccinating many more patients and health and care staff with the Oxford vaccine in the coming weeks which will make a huge difference to people living in the communities we serve and the staff who care for them in our hospitals.’

On another day of coronavirus chaos:

• Boris Johnson will address the nation tonight at 8pm amid reports the UK is headed for a third national lockdown; 
• Matt Hancock says he is ‘incredibly worried’ about the super-infectious South African coronavirus mutation ‘which could beat vaccines’;  
• Scotland will be plunged back into a national coronavirus lockdown from midnight this evening, Nicola Sturgeon announced this afternoon; 
• A Portuguese health worker has died two days after getting the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, with a postmortem due for tomorrow to find out the cause.

Number 10 has ordered 100million doses of Oxford vaccine, which it is hoped will free the UK from the seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns.

But Britain — which was planning to have 4million doses ready for when it was approved last week — has only currently got access to 530,000 doses.  

Millions more are to be delivered in the coming weeks and months once batches have been quality checked. 

Britain’s medical regulator was the first in the world to approve both the Pfizer and the Oxford jabs. But the regulator has stipulated that every batch of vaccine has to be inspected and signed off when it reaches the UK before being injected into Brits’ arms.

Boris Johnson said that the limiting factor in expanding the UK’s vaccine rollout was not supply or staff but waiting for batches to be approved.

He added: ‘We have the capacity, the issue is to do with supply of the vaccine. It’s not so much a manufacturing issue although that’s part of it. Each batch needs to be properly approved and quality controlled.’

But the PM promised there will be a ‘massive ramp up’ in vaccination numbers in the coming weeks. He added: ‘There’s a massive ramp up operation now going on.

‘The rate limiting factor is now not supply of vaccines although we want that to go faster, it’s getting them properly tested and getting them to the NHS.

‘It’s not the ability to distribute the vaccine, it’s not the shortage of staff. It’s getting it properly tested. That will ramp up in the weeks ahead.’

Elderly people and NHS workers at hospitals across Oxford, London, Brighton, Lancashire and Warwickshire were among the first to receive the Oxford jab this morning.

The bulk of the doses will then be sent to hundreds of GP-led services and care homes later in the week for wider rollout, according to the Department of Health. 

Discussing the roll-out, Mr Hancock said: ‘This is a pivotal moment in our fight against this awful virus and I hope it provides renewed hope to everybody that the end of this pandemic is in sight.’

MPs and experts have called for the vaccines to be given out at lightning speed in a desperate bid to stop the spread of the new coronavirus variant, which new evidence suggests may be so infectious that lockdowns can barely contain it.

There are around 31.7million people on the official waiting list for a jab, which includes everyone over the age of 50, people who are younger but seriously ill, and millions of NHS and social care workers.

Top experts insist 2million vaccines must be administered each week, if Britain has any chance of returning to normal by Easter. 

Even at this ambitious speed – six times the rate vaccinations are currently being given out – it would take until April to get one dose to everyone on the priority list. 

However, this doesn’t take into account how patients need their second dose within 12 weeks.  

But there is hope restrictions can be lifted before the list is completed, with officials having previously admitted restrictions can be eased ‘when enough people who are vulnerable to Covid-19 have been vaccinated then’. 

Professor Stephen Powis, director of NHS England, said: ‘We are going to get this out as quickly as possible. We need to get the supplies through. This is a new vaccine.

‘AstraZeneca are ramping up producing and batches will be coming through. We have half a million to come. If we get two million per week, our aim is to get two million into people’s arms a week.

‘We have been preparing in the NHS for months to deliver the biggest vaccination programme in out history and I am confident we will be able to do that Assuming the supply is there, we do have the workforce available.’ 

An army of current and former NHS staff have applied to give the jabs, with tens of thousands having already completed their training.

But serious questions remain about the race to vaccinate the rest of the nation – with retired medics last week complaining they were tied up in red tape. 

Some former doctors keen to join the frontline were asked for 21 documents proving they are trained in subjects such as counter-terrorism and racial equality.

Discussing the red tape preventing ex-medics from joining the roll-out, Mr Hancock said Number 10 was going to ‘reduce the amount of bureaucracy that is needed there’. 

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘For instance, there’s one of the training programmes about needing to tackle terrorism. I don’t think that’s necessary, we’re going to stop that.

‘And we’re going through the different parts of that process to streamline it as much as possible but again that isn’t the rate-limiting step.

‘Because at the moment the NHS, with the people that it has got already, is able to deliver the vaccine as it can be produced, but obviously I want to make that easier.’

Professor Powis echoed Mr Hancock’s claims that the NHS will ‘minimise the bureaucracy people will go through, to ensure people volunteer’. 

He added: ‘We want people to come forward. We are still looking for people because we want to get this into people’s arms very quickly.’

High street pharmacists said today they are ‘baffled’ not to have been called up to help deliver the UK’s ambitious Covid vaccine roll out.

Number 10 wants to immunise two million Britons against the disease every week to get rid of the most draconian lockdown restrictions by Easter.

But the Government faces a series of logistical hurdles in order to achieve the target, including trying to recruit enough people to administer the record number of doses.

The Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies said the 11,500 pharmacies it represents in England were on standby to start delivering the jabs immediately.  

Leyla Hannbeck, CEO of AIMP, told MailOnline: ‘We are baffled by how the accessibility, skills and affordability that community pharmacies offer has not yet been utilised in accelerating this programme and help get the country out of the grip of this virus sooner.

‘Pharmacies are very conveniently placed within every community to help deliver the Covid vaccination service at scale and support the NHS, particularly the AstraZeneca vaccine because it does not present the same logistical challenges as the Pfizer vaccine.’

An army of tens of thousands of medics and volunteer support staff have been recruited to help deliver the Oxford vaccine, according to NHS England, which has refused to give specific numbers.

But just last week, GPs warned of a need for a bigger recruitment drive and called for retired medics, the army, midwives and other non-frontline health staff all to be signed up.

The AIMP said its tens of thousands of staff could start administering the jabs immediately, which would spare the NHS from having to train-up new recruits.

Ms Hannbeck added: ‘Pharmacists are already trained to do vaccinations and the vast majority have the facilities to do this conveniently, so why aren’t their skills and expertise being deployed as an urgent priority right now ?

‘Because community pharmacy is currently involved in the national NHS flu vaccination it would be logical and save tax payers resource to utilise existing structures and resources within one of the few areas of retail which have remained open continuously throughout the pandemic and lockdowns.

‘It is likely if done through pharmacy then more patients wound comply with booster recalls and uptake of covid-19 in general. Pharmacy staff are very comfortable with managing patients’ concerns and are trusted to take their advice.

‘Public feedback around community pharmacy continues to rate its accessibility, professionalism and efficiency veryhighly – a recent survey of the public highlighted that over 70 per cent of the people were very happy to receive vaccination through their local community pharmacy.’

Oxford/AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine is the second to be made available in the UK, after the drug regulator last month approved the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. 

However, Oxford vaccine is easier to use because it does not need to be stored at extremely low temperatures.

Yesterday Boris Johnson hailed the UK’s vaccine progress. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: ‘The UK remains the first country to get a stage three approved vaccine into people’s arms. 

‘Vaccinating a million people, as we have already, we exceed the whole of the rest of Europe put together.’

He also promised that ‘tens of millions’ of doses will be administered in ‘the next three months’.

A total of 524,439 people already vaccinated are aged 80 and over – around one in five of that age group. 

In hopes of helping Britain pick up pace in the vaccination drive, supermarket giant Tesco and chemist Boots have offered to help with the rollout of the vaccines. 

Boots is opening three Covid vaccination sites in Halifax, Huddersfield and Gloucester, while Tesco will help distribute the Oxford vaccine.   

It comes as it was revealed the Armed Forces will create 150 mobile vaccination teams to deliver Covid jabs as part of a mission dubbed Operation Delta Force. 

Defence sources say the operation – named after the elite US Special Forces unit – will involve teams of medics and logistics experts helping to deliver the vaccine in harsh winter weather.

The plan, which could involve up to 1,500 personnel, is understood to have been approved by Ministers, with troops beginning their training in giving vaccine jabs from this week.  

A fleet of Army Land Rovers is being prepared for the mission with other personnel using Chinook helicopters to reach remote areas.

Football and rugby clubs along with racetracks may be transformed into mobile vaccination centres.

Roll-out of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab began almost a month ago. 

But both jabs require second doses which will now take place within 12 weeks rather than 21 days as initially planned to ‘protect the greatest number of people in the shortest time’, health chiefs said.  

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said in May that AstraZeneca, the firm manufacturing the Oxford jab, would work to make 30 million doses available by September.

But only four million are understood to be potentially available pending checks, although tens of millions are due by the end of March.

Professor Andrew Hayward, a member of SAGE and an epidemiologist at University College London, told Good Morning Britain today: ‘Concern is that capacity issues in manufacturing mean that we don’t get to those levels maybe until February for example.

‘Of course the earlier we can vaccinate people the better and the sooner we will be able to move beyond this.’

The Government was yesterday forced to deny claims there was a ‘postcode lottery’ as GPs in some areas have not agreed to deliver the vaccine. 

Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: ‘The overwhelming majority of GPs have opted to take part in delivering the vaccine through primary care networks. 

‘In areas where they have not yet agreed to take part, the NHS will deliver vaccinations in hospital hubs or dedicated centres.’ 

Earlier this month, AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot promised the firm will be able to deliver two million doses a week by mid-January – meaning 24million could be immunised by Easter.  

But an insider has claimed that the target may be too big for the NHS to handle and said ‘we have never said we will do two million jabs a week’. 

The source told The Daily Telegraph:  ‘We have to manage expectations. You cannot vaccinate two million people a week from nothing.’ 

The NHS says the logistics of the distribution – including training volunteers and preparing sites – may mean the two million-a-week target may take longer to hit than promised.

As it stands, around 300,000 people are getting the jab every seven days.  

England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty this week warned that vaccine availability issues will ‘remain the case for several months’ and while a jab shortage ‘is a reality that cannot be wished away.

The 530,000 doses ready for distribution tomorrow – along with a further 450,000 expected in the coming days – are a fraction of what was promised.  

Yesterday Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford, who was involved in development of the jab with AstraZeneca, said successive UK governments had left the nation unable to manufacture vaccine at the pace needed in a pandemic.

A Government spokesman said: ‘We have long recognised the importance of vaccine manufacturing, having announced an innovation centre in 2018 and invested £93million [last year] to rapidly accelerate its construction.’   

But manufactures of both the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs have rubbished distribution concerns, saying there is no problem with supply.

It is claimed that there are 15million doses of the Oxford vaccine waiting to be packaged up – while ‘millions’ of doses have been shipped over by Pfizer.

A total of 24million vials are ready to be used or acquired on short notice. 

Meanwhile, there have been concerns that tens of thousands of recently retired GPs, surgeons, and nurses are being put off helping out with the nation’s vaccine drive due to the bureaucracy involved.

Criticism has been mounting of ‘ridiculous’ demands such as a requirement to be certified in fire safety, or trained in preventing radicalisation.

Asked about the complaints, Mr Johnson said: ‘I think it’s absurd and I know that the Health Secretary is taking steps to get rid of that pointless bureaucracy.’

Former PM Tony Blair urged the government to target five million vaccinations a week – saying it was hard to see how schools could stay open otherwise.

He told Times Radio: ‘If I was the prime minister right now I would be saying to the team in Downing Street, ‘I need you to give me a plan to get this up to five million (vaccinations) a week’.

‘Provided we’ve got the vaccine available and we should have them available. I mean AstraZeneca will, not this week or next week but the week after, be able to get up to two million doses a week, that’s just AstraZeneca.

‘They could probably do more if they knew that the system was capable of absorbing the amount of vaccines that they would produce.

‘You should get clearance for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the end of January, that’s when they complete their trials and then we should be able to get that on stream as well in February.’