Frontline health workers, over-50s and Britons with heart or kidney disease will be the first in line to get a Covid-19 vaccine, Matt Hancock revealed today amid the global race against time to find a jab and save millions of lives.
The Health Secretary announced the priority list in tonight’s Downing Street press conference, as he admitted the best way to defeat the disease is by discovering a vaccine — a feat scientists fear won’t be made until 2021.
And he claimed the priority groups, drafted by a government advisory body, was not set in stone, saying other at-risk Brits may be added as the science becomes clearer about who is most vulnerable to the infection.
Mr Hancock said the advice would allow Britain to ‘protect the most at-risk first’ and added it would help to get the country ‘back on our feet as soon as we possibly can’.
The advice — which officials said was to ‘save lives and protect the NHS’ — comes after Imperial College London scientists became the second British team to begin human trials of an experimental Covid-19 vaccine this week.
And pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has already started to manufacture the other promising vaccine being tested in the UK, made by researchers at Oxford University and already given to scores of Brits.
Mr Hancock said the decision to start making the jab now — before any evidence to prove it works has been uncovered — will allow officials to ‘build up a stockpile’, if it is eventually approved.
The Health Secretary made the announcement in tonight’s Downing Street press conference, saying ministers would be ‘guided by the science’
How the vaccines from Imperial College London and Oxford University would work
Discussing the two groups of Britons who will be given priority access when a jab is eventually found, Mr Hancock said: ‘Just as we did for testing, we’ll be guided by the clinical science prioritising those in most need.’
The preliminary advice was issued this afternoon by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), who recommended that both groups receive a Covid-19 jab first.
Mr Hancock said he was ‘very grateful’ for the advice, which was requested by the Department of Health and Social Care ‘to facilitate planning for the deployment of any safe and effective vaccine as soon as licensure is obtained for use in the UK’.
He added: ‘They recommend priority vaccinations for two groups, frontline health and social care workers, and those at increased risk of serious disease or death from coronavirus, including, for example, adults over the age of 50 and those with heart and kidney disease.
‘As we learn more about the virus we’ll continue to take into account which groups may be particularly vulnerable, including, for example, those from ethnic minority backgrounds.’
The JCVI guidance said frontline health and social care workers are at increased risk of being exposed to Covid-19, as well as transmitting the SARS-CoV-2 virus to vulnerable Britons in hospitals and care homes.
The committee labelled health workers as the highest priority for vaccination and told health chiefs doing so would also help ‘maintain resilience in the NHS and for health and social care providers’.
The JCVI — which consists of a dozen or more top scientists — advises ministers on all vaccines. It admitted its guidance for any UK Covid-19 vaccination scheme is likely to be modified in the future.
It added: ‘There is ongoing work within the UK to refine the identification of persons at risk of serious disease and mortality from Covid-19 infection.
‘As well as age and underlying co-morbid conditions, the committee notes that early signals have been identified of other potential risk factors, including deprivation and ethnicity.
‘As more evidence on at-risk groups emerges, this work will inform the review of the composition, and order of priority, of groups for vaccination.’
It added: ‘There are a number of unknown factors about any potential vaccines, and there are still important gaps in our understanding of COVID-19.
‘The committee will be keeping its advice under review and as more information becomes available will update its advice as and when deemed appropriate.’
As well as discussing who would be prioritised for any vaccine, Mr Hancock called on Brits to ensure they don’t avoid getting the MMR and other routine jabs.
He said: ‘Before I talk about coronavirus vaccines, I want to mention a very important reminder about other routine vaccines that are there to protect you.
‘Throughout the crisis, we’ve tried to keep the vaccination programmes for children and that has been largely successful.
‘But if you, or your child, is invited for a vaccine like MMR then please make sure you attend.
‘It’s very important that we don’t fall behind on the vaccination for other diseases because of this crisis.’
World Health Organization officials have already spoken of their fears that measles vaccination rates will plummet amid the pandemic.
Mr Hancock added: ‘In the long-run, the best way to defeat this virus is, of course, the discovery of a vaccine.’
He said since the start of the coronavirus crisis officials have ‘been supporting the most promising projects’, pointing to the experimental Imperial College London and Oxford University vaccines.
Mr Hancock said: ‘Our approach to vaccines is to throw everything at it as fast as we can, and to rigorously test to make sure they are safe before deployment.’
Mr Hancock also discussed AstraZeneca’s decision to start mass-manufacturing the experimental AZD1222 vaccine now.
The jab — which the pharma giant’s chief executive believes will offer protection for a year — is currently being trialled on more than 10,000 people.
Mr Hancock said: ‘They’re starting manufacturing now, even ahead of approval so we can build up a stock pile and be ready should it be clinically approved.’
He said there will be sufficient supplies of the vaccine for those Brits most in need, ‘should the science come off’.
Stockpiles of the £5 steroid drug dexamethasone were built-up before health chiefs approved it for NHS use on Covid-19 patients requiring oxygen.
AstraZeneca is banking on the experimental jab working after signing multiple deals with countries around the globe to supply billions of doses of the vaccine.
The Cambridge-based firm last weekend agreed to dish out up to 400million doses in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
It has already inked deals to make 400million for the US as well as 100million for the UK, with the aim to start supplying them by October.
Oxford scientists announced this month that the vaccine was being partly trialled in Brazil because of fears the virus is dying out in the UK.
The Imperial College London vaccine — the second to be tested on humans in the UK — will work slightly differently.
The science behind both vaccine attempts hinges on recreating the ‘spike’ proteins that are found all over the outside of the COVID-19 viruses.
Both will attempt to recreate or mimic these spikes inside the body. The difference between the two is how they achieve this effect.
The Imperial jab will deliver genetic material (RNA) from the virus, which programs cells inside the patient’s body to recreate the spike proteins.
The Oxford University vaccine, on the other hand, will genetically engineer a virus to look like the coronavirus – but be unable to cause any infection.
The next part of the Imperial College London trial will involve 120 humans and will be scaled up to include 6,000 people, if it is proven to be safe.
But Professor Robin Shattock, the lead scientist, said the vaccine won’t be available until at least 2021 even if everything goes according to plan.