UK secures 100 million doses of approved Oxford vaccine
A SECOND coronavirus vaccine has been approved in the UK.
The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine uses a harmless, weakened version of a common virus which causes a cold in chimpanzees.
Scientists have transferred the genetic instructions for coronavirus’s specific “spike protein” – which it needs to invade cells – to the vaccine.
When the vaccine enters cells inside the body, it uses this genetic code to produce the surface spike protein of the coronavirus.
This induces an immune response, priming the immune system to attack coronavirus if it infects the body.
Phase 3 trial data showed the jab was 70.4% effective on average across two different dose regimes and possibly up to 90% when one half dose is given followed by a further full dose.
The MHRA has recommended over-18s should receive two doses to be administered with an interval of between four and 12 weeks.
UK health professionals have suggested giving as many people as possible the first doses of either approved vaccine - effectively doubling the number of people given some protection.
The second dose, which gives maximum protection, could then come up to three months later.
A comment from Health & Social Care about the impact of this approval on the island's mass vaccination programme is expected this afternoon, but the UK government has confirmed it has secured 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said rollout would begin on 4 January.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator of the Oxford Vaccine Trial, said the development and approval of the vaccine was 'an absolute triumph of academic collaboration'.
He said it should be possible to tweak vaccines should that be necessary to deal with new variants of the virus, but added that there is no evidence so far that the vaccines will not work against a new variant.
