Kanawu Radio number 1 news portal
The United Kingdom is the first country in the world to approve the corona vaccine from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German biotechnologist BioNTech . The vaccinations will start next week. It is seen on the island as a ‘ Brexit success story ‘.
Patrick van IJzendoorn December 2, 2020, 11:33
The hope is that the 94-year-old queen will set an example for people who are unwilling to get vaccinated. pictureEPA
The first people to be vaccinated will be staff and residents of care homes. Next, it is the turn of employees of the National Health Service, the British health personnel. Vaccination centers will be set up in fifty hospitals. In the course of the month, if all goes well, the massive inoculation of the rest of the population begins, starting with the oldest Britons. The 94-year-old queen also belongs to this category. The hope is that she will set an example for those unwilling to get vaccinated, a group that has grown in recent weeks.
To convince the skeptics, the government also wants to call in ‘sensible celebrities’. These include Marcus Rashford , the 23-year-old footballer who received high praise for his campaign for free school meals for poor children. The UK government does not intend to require vaccinations, but is looking for ways to persuade as many people as possible. For example, there is talk of an immunity passport that gives access to theaters, airplanes, football matches, cinemas and the catering industry. Within conservative libertarian circles there is much resistance to this intention.
Another question is who gets which vaccination. The elderly will probably receive the Pfizer vaccination and the young will receive the AstraZenec a variant , which protects less well.There are concerns about the enormous logistical task, especially given the many mistakes made earlier in the corona crisis. The Pfizer vaccine, in particular, is a challenge because it must be stored at a temperature of minus 70 degrees. The London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants the ethnic minorities in the capital first get their turn. This is a group that has suffered relatively heavily from the epidemic, but also the group where there is relatively much skepticism about vaccination.
Health Minister Matt Hancock has said that thanks to Brexit , the British are at the forefront of vaccinations. The quick action of the British is possible because the United Kingdom no longer falls under the wings of the European Medicines Agency since the beginning of this year. After all, on January 31, the British left all European institutions. Approval is now in the hands of its own Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which can work faster, especially when the political pressure is high. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has compared the vaccines to a cavalry coming to liberate the island.
Economy Minister Alok Sharma spoke of a historic day. In the years to come, we will remember this as the day when the UK leads the way in humanity’s fight against this disease. The Brexit euphoria was muffled by June Raine , the boss of the MHRA. She claimed that the UK approval did take place under EU law, using an exception clause that allows EU member states to approve emergency vaccines outside the European regulator. Other EU countries have not made use of this in view of mutual solidarity.
