London, December 30 The Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine was approved by the British Drug and Health Products Administration (MHRA) on the 30th, and will be officially put into clinical use for large-scale vaccination.
This is the second coronavirus vaccine approved by the United Kingdom after the Pfizer vaccine in the United States.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson immediately tweeted on the same day, “This is very good news and a victory for British science. Now we will act as soon as possible to vaccinate as many people as possible.” “This is a truly important moment, a true story of success in Britain,” Matthew Hancock, the health secretary of state, told the media.
Hancock said that the Oxford vaccine will be put into use on January 4, and the National Health Service (NHS) will carry out mass vaccination at its fastest speed.
The vaccine provides a way for the UK to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic by next spring, when millions of vulnerable people will be protected. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer of the United Kingdom, praised, “Sizable collective efforts have brought us to this point in tribute to British scientists.
The British media rushed to report that the UK ushered in the most exciting news at the end of 2020.
The BBC has called the Oxford vaccine approved for use in the UK as a landmark moment that will lead the UK to a massive “immunization campaign” to “get life back to normal”.
The Sun described the Oxford vaccine as Britain’s “hope” in the title of the article, and The Guardian called the Oxford vaccine “essential”.
Hancock said that the test results showed that the average effectiveness of the Oxford vaccine developed by Oxford University in cooperation with AstraZeneca in the United Kingdom was 70%, the effectiveness of the two doses of vaccination was 62% and 90% respectively, and the recommended interval between the first and second doses was 12 weeks.
It is “very helpful” to get more people immune through the first dose.
In contrast, Oxford vaccines are cheaper than other vaccines, easy to mass production, can be stored in ordinary refrigerators, and easier to be delivered to nursing homes and general clinics.
Currently, the UK government has ordered 100 million doses of Oxford vaccine, enough to vaccinate about 50 million people, which accounts for about 73% of the British population.
