Vaccination programme should be sped up, says businessman

Jon Moulton, who has partly funded the vaccine trials at Imperial College London, said it was clear that the great majority of the protection came from the first jab.

‘We ought to be vaccinating as many people as we can as quickly as we can, the idea that this island would take a stance that is different to the MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency] is incredible.

‘At the moment it looks like someone with a single dose has about 90% immunity, people who have two doses are at about 94% or 95%.’

The UK announced last week that it was changing its strategy so that both parts of the double dose Pfizer and Oxford vaccines would be administered 12 weeks apart, allowing for a much faster roll-out.

At this stage it looks as if Guernsey will not be following that pivot in strategy.

Commenting on social media, Deputy Tina Bury, the vice president of Health & Social Care, shed light on the local position.

‘We haven’t amended our original stance, which is to reserve the second doses from the stock received, rather than use it all as first doses and risk potentially not receiving the second doses in the time frame needed.

‘For clarity, that statement relates to the first consignment, I do not know if that stance will change going forward.’

By delaying the second vaccine doses the UK has doubled the number of people eligible for shots and expects to have given one injection to everyone in their top four priority groups.

Mr Moulton said that Guernsey could end up several months behind.

‘We won’t be at a stage where all the over 70s will be vaccinated by mid February which is the mainland target, we’d be getting that done by something like May.’

‘That would have an impact on the borders, on the economy, on the mental health of the entire population, and it leaves us exposed.’

The MHRA approved the Oxford vaccine for use on 30 December, and on Monday 4 January Guernsey’s authorities had not made a decision on when it could be approved for use in the Bailiwick.

A spokesperson for HSC said the latest details would be provided at Friday’s live 1pm press conference.

The Oxford vaccine is poised to become the world’s dominant form of inoculation because it is cheap, and easy to store and transport.

Jersey received their first consignment of the Oxford vaccine yesterday.

Mr Moulton was surprised at the delay in giving approval.

‘Amazement, if we’ve got bureaucracy that stops us approving vaccines pretty well on the spot we should be looking for rapid improvements in the personnel and the civil service responsible.’

Details of how many Bailiwick residents have received the first vaccine dose are also a bit murky.

On the 22 December it was announced that 968 islanders had been given the first dose, and there has since been no further updates on numbers.

The situation has led some deputies to call for a better release of information, and Mr Moulton agreed.

‘I’m amazed that the States are not being 100% straightforward and transparent and are delaying everything for the press conference on Friday, this stuff should be online and freely available, people are entitled to try to plan their lives against what seems to be the likely vaccination pattern.’