{"id":715,"date":"2021-01-20T21:47:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauks-dr-rosie-shire-bloomberg-news-can-johnson-defy-critics-and-vaccinate-15-million-britons-in-time\/"},"modified":"2021-01-20T21:47:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:47:57","slug":"dauks-dr-rosie-shire-bloomberg-news-can-johnson-defy-critics-and-vaccinate-15-million-britons-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauks-dr-rosie-shire-bloomberg-news-can-johnson-defy-critics-and-vaccinate-15-million-britons-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK’s Dr Rosie Shire, Bloomberg News: Can Johnson Defy Critics and Vaccinate 15 Million Britons in Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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(Bloomberg) — U.K. health minister Matt Hancock was surrounded by cameras as he visited a family doctors\u2019 practice in north London to hail the rollout of a new coronavirus vaccine. Unfortunately for him, the clinic hadn\u2019t yet received its promised delivery of shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were expecting our first AstraZeneca 400 today,\u201d Dr Ammara Hughes from the Bloomsbury Surgery told Sky News. \u201cBut we\u2019ve had a push-back for 24 hours so we\u2019re now getting that delivery tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The encounter, which played out on national TV Thursday, neatly encapsulated the logistical issues facing the government\u2019s highly ambitious vaccine rollout. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to deliver 15 million shots to the most vulnerable people in the U.K. by the middle of February \u2014 just five weeks away \u2014 and said everyone will be within 10 miles of their nearest vaccination center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s record on meeting its targets during the pandemic has been patchy at best and even Johnson concedes his latest goal is a \u201cbig stretch.\u201d In the first month of the vaccine program only one tenth of the total \u2014 about 1.5 million people \u2014 have received injections, leaving the vast bulk still to do. Yet the prime minister has little choice but to aim high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.K. is at the epicenter of Europe\u2019s struggle to contain Covid-19, with daily infections at a record and the worst death toll in the region, at almost 80,000. One in 50 people in England has the disease, according to official estimates, and Johnson this week locked the country down for a third time, shutting schools and ordering the population to stay home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national lockdown threatens to push the U.K. back into recession. Battered retail and hospitality businesses have been hit again, leaving Johnson\u2019s government firefighting an economic crisis with unprecedented borrowing, as well as a health emergency that continues to get worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one bright spot in Britain\u2019s virus story is its approach to the vaccines. The U.K. was the first country in the western world to approve a Covid immunization last month, giving the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, and is significantly ahead of its European neighbors with delivering injections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to lifting the lockdown is getting the disease under control and the key to that is getting enough people vaccinated. That\u2019s why the Department of Health\u2019s \u201centire focus\u201d is now on the mass immunization program, according to one government official. \u201cThe vaccine is the closest to a silver bullet we\u2019re going to get,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless the worry among officials is that once again Johnson has been over-optimistic in his promise and the government will fall short \u2014 either of reaching the magic 15 million elderly and vulnerable people, or of being able then to lift the lockdown enough to satisfy the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the scenes, problems are starting to emerge. The fate of Johnson\u2019s project is now entirely in the hands of the drug companies manufacturing the vaccines. Hancock, the U.K.\u2019s most senior health minister, said on Jan. 6 the only thing limiting the speed of the roll-out was the supply of the \u201cjuice\u201d from these drug-makers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privately, people familiar with the companies\u2019 supply chains dispute Hancock\u2019s message. They say they are on track to produce exactly what the government ordered but safety checks by an arm of the U.K.\u2019s regulator are slowing the delivery down. In a statement Friday, the regulator said it was constantly looking at ways to speed up testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cfill and finish\u201d process \u2014 by which the vaccine is put into vials and packaged up \u2014 also takes time. In Parliament, Hancock was asked why one U.K. manufacturing plant in north Wales, run by pharma firm Wockhardt, was not working seven days a week to deliver the nation\u2019s most urgent priority.\u201cIt can fill and finish vials only at the speed at which the vaccine material, which is a biological material, not a chemical compound, can be produced,\u201d Hancock replied. Ravi Limaye, managing director of Wockhardt U.K., said the factory was working \u201cat pace to meet the approved production schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, just four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have gone through the fill and finish process, according to a person familiar with the situation. But there are another 15 million Astra doses in the U.K. waiting to be put into vials. AstraZeneca declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pfizer has so far handed over about five million doses to the U.K. A Pfizer spokesperson said the deliveries were on track to meet the schedule the company has agreed with ministers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are hopes the picture will improve. By late January, AstraZeneca is planning to have two million doses available each week, according to a person with knowledge of the target. Officials say that is the kind of bulk that will help the government meet its goal \u2014 but only if those doses can be processed and delivered around the country too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For doctors in England, the politics is irrelevant when they can\u2019t get the doses they were promised to inject into their patients\u2019 arms. The Royal College of General Practitioners said last minute changes to vaccine delivery schedules were creating \u201cconfusion\u201d for patients and \u201ca lot of hard work\u201d for medics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said some practices were also \u201cstruggling with supply issues and experiencing delays.\u201d These logistical challenges are \u201cinevitable although understandably very frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ministers have drafted in the army to help with the vast operation needed to move millions of doses around the country. A national booking service is being set up and hundreds of vaccination centers are opening in sports stadiums and other venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A government spokesman said the NHS is doing \u201ceverything possible to roll out doses as quickly as they can be supplied and quality checked.\u201d The AstraZeneca shots are being sent to family doctors and vaccinations will be taking place at more than 1,000 sites by the end of this week, the spokesman added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But some healthcare workers are frustrated that their offers to help inoculate are being ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Keen, chief executive of the Kingston and Richmond Local Pharmaceutical Committee, which represents 78 pharmacies in his part of south west London, said they\u2019d been told they could roll out the vaccine from next week but had not been given any logistical information so have been unable to prepare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government is focused on mass vaccination sites, but these are not ideal for many older and vulnerable people, Keen said. \u201cElderly patients want to go to their local GP, their local practice, their local pharmacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Rosie Shire, a general practitioner in Warrington, northwest England, who speaks for the Doctors\u2019 Association, said she had heard from colleagues on maternity leave and retired doctors who want\u00a0to get involved\u00a0but had not yet been told how they can do that.<\/p>

Even if the vaccines are made quickly enough, poured into injection vials fast enough, and distributed to enough medical centers in the right places, there is still a question of whether patients will want the shots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

People in deprived communities or from minority ethnic backgrounds are among the most vulnerable to the disease but also potentially the least likely to seek medical help. Mukesh Shah, who has run a pharmacy in south west London for 32 years, suggested batches of vaccine could be taken directly to local mosques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, however, patients are desperate to get injections, according to Shah. \u201cThe phone hasn\u2019t stopped ringing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe tell them we are waiting for the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article can be accessed here: https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/can-johnson-defy-critics-and-vaccinate-15-million-britons-in-time-1.1545971<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Bloomberg) — U.K. health minister Matt Hancock was surrounded by cameras as he visited a family doctors\u2019 practice in north London to hail the rollout…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59,29,58],"tags":[424,425,44,300,38,301,426,412,413,33,34,90,42],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","category-protect-the-frontline","category-the-nhs","tag-bloomberg-news","tag-bnn-bloomberg","tag-covid-19","tag-covid19-vaccine","tag-dauk","tag-dauks-gp-committee","tag-dr-rosie-shire","tag-international-press","tag-international-press-covid-19","tag-press","tag-press-covid-19","tag-primary-care","tag-the-doctors-association-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}