Britain has led the world in granting a license to the vaccine "Pfizer-BioNTech" for widespread use, in a step that marks the beginning of confronting the emerging corona virus.
Despite the speed with which the approval process of this vaccine, whose effectiveness rate is 95%, the health authorities confirm that the licensing process respected all safety standards, and was supervised by institutions known for their practical safety at the scientific level.
It is expected that the first doses of the vaccine will be injected into the bodies of the British starting next week, in a process that British Health Minister Matt Hancock admits will not be easy, "but it is a great development."
Through the following points, we review everything we know so far about this vaccine and the first vaccination process in the world.
Who licensed the "Pfizer-Biontech" vaccine?
The British government cannot move to distribute the vaccine without obtaining a license from the British Medicines and Medical Products Control Authority, which announced in a press conference that the vaccine is safe for use and does not pose a threat to public health.
This body is an institution independent of the government and includes leading scientists in medicine and immunology.
The authority says that it studied all the data related to the vaccine, and there was no rush to grant the license, which previously required 10 years before it was granted.
Why was Britain the first to grant a license compared to other European countries?
"This is thanks to Brexit," and the statement here by British Health Minister Matt Hancock, and the intent of this statement is that Britain enacted legislation to grant the country's Medicines Control Authority the authority to license drugs and vaccines without returning to European institutions, during the transition phase of Brexit that ends at the end of this month This gave Britain independence in making its decision away from the European Medicines Authority, which said it would study the license application for the "Pfizer" vaccine at the end of this month.
When will the vaccination process begin in Britain?
The British Ministry of Health says that the vaccination process will start at the beginning of next week, after the arrival of 800 thousand doses from Belgium, and that second shipments will arrive before the end of this month.
It is expected that Britain will receive 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the beginning of next year, which are sufficient doses to vaccinate 20 million citizens, given that each person needs two doses with a difference of 21 days between them, and the effectiveness of the vaccine will not start until after a week.
Who is the first group to receive the vaccine?
Health workers and patients in hospitals will be the first to receive the vaccine, and the reason is that the vaccine is easy to store in major hospitals, given its need to stay in a temperature of minus 70 degrees.
After the arrival of other shipments of doses, there will be a list of the groups that have priority in obtaining the vaccine, starting with the role of the elderly and their workers, then people over 80 years old, and workers in the first row to confront the virus, then after them the group over the age of 70 and the most vulnerable people The virus is caused by chronic diseases, and so it will move to the younger and younger group, up to the age of 50.
These categories account for more than 95% of deaths due to Corona, according to the British Vaccine and Immunology Committee.
How will the pollination process take place?
The British government will send a message to everyone who has priority in obtaining the vaccine, and the start will be in major hospitals, given their availability of storage and cooling capabilities, then the process will move to local clinics, and the government will establish major vaccination centers.
It is expected that the second stage of large-scale vaccination will involve operating medical centers seven days a week, starting from eight in the morning until eight in the evening, to vaccinate millions of people, and for this reason, 300,000 volunteers will be employed to help in this process.
According to the expectations of the Minister of Health, this operation will help restore a large part of normal life by next April.
What stages did the vaccine go through before reaching the licensing stage?
According to the Medicines and Medical Products Control Authority, the vaccine licensing process went through 4 stages, the first of which was to study clinical trial data in its three stages, then monitor the quality of vaccine manufacturing, then obtain samples of the vaccine after the manufacturing stage, and finally to test the final product.
The licensing process was done so quickly, because the priority was for the vaccine and all efforts focused on it without other drugs or vaccines. After obtaining the approval of the Medicines and Medical Products Control Authority, the vaccine also passed through the Human Medicines Committee, before the government was authorized to use it, so that the Pfizer vaccine would be faster. A vaccine in history gets a license.
Why was the British-made Oxford vaccine delayed?
The British government has bet and is still on the Oxford University vaccine, to be the first and most used vaccine in the face of the Corona virus, and for this it has made a deal to obtain 100 million doses of it in exchange for 40 million doses of the "Pfizer" vaccine, and the reason for the delay in obtaining the Oxford vaccine to obtain the license is the efforts of those in charge. He must determine the dose sufficient to achieve 90% effectiveness.
Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which anyone needs two doses of, one dose of the Oxford vaccine will be sufficient to achieve immunity, and the price of the latter is almost 5 times cheaper.
The Oxford vaccine has also applied for a license in Britain and is expected to be granted approval within the next two weeks.