The United Kingdom has become the first country in the world to have the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine approved for widespread news.
The British regulator, MHRA, says that the vaccine offers up to 95% protection against the COVID-19 illness, and it is safe to be distributed next week.
Having 40 million doses, the UK will be focusing on the most vulnerable group such as the elderly.
Around 10 million should be available in the near time frame, with 40 million total doses enough to be used on 20 million people.
The first 800,000 arriving in the UK in the next few days, being the fastest ever that a vaccine could be distributed since its early developing stages at the start of the year to its official announcement in November.
Normally, vaccines or other medical shots would take a span of a decade to be widely available.
This could be the largest-scale vaccination campaign in the UK’s history.
50 hospitals and vaccination centers in venues are setting up and getting ready for the hundreds of thousands of people coming to get vaccinated.
Though it does not mean that they are free to do whatever they please after the shot, but they need to stay on alert and follow the rules to avoid any risks of the virus getting spread, even after the vaccination.
The people being vaccinated will still have to isolate themselves from society, especially the ones that have caught the virus.
The authorities have made a list of who should receive the vaccine first, a priority list, focusing on those that are vulnerable. The elderlies and staffs of care homes, also the health and social workers.
Once the shot is taken the first time, the people would have to come back 21 days later for the second shot for the most optimum protection.
Other vaccines that the UK has ordered are the Moderna and the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines that use similar characteristics as Pfizer, with 7 million and 100 million doses pre-ordered respectively.
The Russian vaccine, Sputnik, and the Chinese military vaccine, CanSino Biologics have been used in their own countries, where both are similar to the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Source: BBC Breakfast, BBC News