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Happy days - the vaccine rollout is imminent
Fabulous news today that the vaccine is likely to be available in the UK as soon as next week.
It'll take a while to get everyone sorted, but at least we have a start & some hope.
Would I have the jab? You bet, in a heartbeat. I know there are many anti vaccine conspiracy theorists, (almost none of them medically trained), "Bill Gates wants to poison me" lol, but if they don't want it, fine, the rest of us will get ours sooner.
Such great news.
Comments
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/brain-damaged-uk-victims-swine-flu-vaccine-get-60-million-compensation-1438572
Pfizer’s UK boss refuses to explain why the business needs protection from legal action.
The UK government has granted pharmaceutical giant Pfizer a legal indemnity protecting it from being sued, enabling its coronavirus vaccine to be rolled out across the country as early as next week.
The Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed the company has been given an indemnity protecting it from legal action as a result of any problems with the vaccine.
Ministers have also changed the law in recent weeks to give new protections to companies such as Pfizer, giving them immunity from being sued by patients in the event of any complications.
NHS staff providing the vaccine, as well as manufacturers of the drug, are also protected.
The vaccine will be made available to anyone over the age of 16 but will not be available to pregnant women because of the lack of data about how it could affect them and the baby. An ongoing trial is looking at this.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Tuesday under regulation 174 of the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 which allows an unlicensed medication to be used in an emergency such as a pandemic.
It also has the effect of granting civil immunity to Pfizer after the government changed the regulations following a short three-week consultation in September.
In a press conference with journalists on Wednesday, Ben Osborn, Pfizer’s UK managing director, refused to explain why the company needed an indemnity.
He said: “We're not actually disclosing any of the details around any of the aspects of that agreement and specifically around the liability clauses."
Asked about when the full data on the vaccine’s clinical trial would be published, the company said this was still being worked on.
Dr Berkeley Phillips, medical director for Pfizer UK, said: “The publication is in progress. The priority, absolutely, had to be the regulatory submissions to MHRA, EMA and the FDA. That was the most important thing we needed to do. The full protocol is published and available for everyone to see and the team are working on the publication of the manuscript in parallel to the regulatory submissions.”
The chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), speaking at a separate briefing on Wednesday, said “no corners had been cut” in the safety analysis of the vaccine.
June Raine said: “This recommendation has only been given by the MHRA, following the most rigorous scientific assessment of every piece of data, so that it meets the required strict standards of safety of effectiveness and of quality.
“We've also reviewed and agreed the prescribing information so that the public and health care professionals are very clear and can be very confident that the vaccine is being used in the correct way, understanding what's involved.”
She said that National Institute for Biological Standards would be independently testing “every single vaccine that goes out” to ensure it meets safety standards.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed an indemnity was in place for Pfizer and added that the government would be adding the coronavirus vaccine to the list of vaccinations covered by the Vaccine Damages Payments Act.
This pays out a one-off £120,000 payment to people who are permanently disabled or harmed as a result of a listed vaccination.
It further explains: “For reasons of extreme urgency under Regulation 32(2)(c) related to the release of a Covid-19 vaccine MHRA have accelerated the sourcing and implementation of a vaccine specific AI tool…… it is not possible to retrofit the MHRA’s legacy systems to handle the volume of ADRs that will be generated by a Covid-19 vaccine. Therefore, if the MHRA does not implement the AI tool, it will be unable to process these ADRs effectively. This will hinder its ability to rapidly identify any potential safety issues with the Covid-19 vaccine and represents a direct threat to patient life and public health”.
https://www.ft.com/content/17a306cd-be75-48b4-996e-0c2916b34797?fbclid=IwAR3V8T6f-ymXXysOcBSZICIf7NueNFqbKyt6d47r7M0CusNSbJWcyBlW_mg
Senior EU and US figures lashed out after the UK's regulator approved the Pfizer BioNTech jab this week
They questioned the speed at which Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) acted
Critics included the US Covid supremo Anthony Fauci, who warned it may put people off getting it
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam suggesting they were jealous of the UK's speed of action
Williamson also waded into the row, claiming that the UK was simply 'a much better country' than its rivals
Dr Anthony Fauci accused the UK drug regulator of failing to adequately scrutinize data from manufacturers before becoming the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. The American scientist, who is under pressure from the Trump administration to explain why the US was beaten by Britain, likened the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to a marathon runner who cheats by joining 'in the last mile'. Both the EU and the United States lashed out after the news that the UK will begin roll-out of the US/German drug to millions of vulnerable people next week, with the first deliveries happening within hours. They raised safety questions over the speed at which the MHRA acted to approve the treatment, with Dr Fauci (centre) telling CBS News: 'I love the Brits, they're great, they're good scientists, but they just took the data from the Pfizer company and instead of scrutinizing it really, really carefully, they said: ''OK, let's approve it, that's it.'' And they went with it'. His accusation was strongly denied by the MRHA today, with a spokesman saying it 'rigorously assessed the data in the shortest time possible, without compromising the thoroughness of our review'. Ministers and scientists rallied round the regulator in the midst of attacks from those who finished as runners-up, accusing them of being jealous of the UK's speed in approving the new vaccine. Gavin Williamson (left) mocked Europe and the United States this morning as he insisted that Britain beat them to rolling out a coronavirus vaccine because it was simply 'a much better country'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9013629/Were-better-country-Gavin-Williamson-wades-Brexit-vaccine-row-blast-EU.html
…
Number 10 has distanced Boris Johnson from the claim Brexit helped speed up approval for the new Covid-19 vaccine.
Matt Hancock and Jacob Rees-Mogg both claimed this morning that the UK's impending departure from the EU greased the wheels of the clinical approval for the jab.
But this morning, MHRA chief June Raine said the approval was made using provisions under European law, which still binds the UK until the end of the year.
And German MEP Pieter Liese, a member of the European Parliament's public health committee, said individual EU member states could have authorised the vaccine but had chosen to wait for the EMA to examine more information rather than follow the "hasty" UK example.
And the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman wouldn't say on the record that the claims were true.
Asked if the PM agreed with the claims, he would only say: "The important point is that we are the first country in the world to approve this vaccine, and that's thanks to the hard work of the MHRA and obviously special thanks needs to go to those who took part in these trials and who have worked tirelessly to producing the vaccine."
He added that the MHRA "is globally recognised for requiring the highest standards of quality, safety and medicines regulation and the public should be sure that the vaccine is safe for use."
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/no10-distances-boris-johnson-from-matt-hancock-claim-brexit-sped-up-new-covid-19-vaccine/ar-BB1byWba?ocid=msedgntp
Pfizer is an American company.
Its being manufactured in Belgium.
We are currently still members of the EU,
Authorisation took place under EU Law.
Are we taking credit for just buying it?
What a bellend.