UK Government signs deal for 90m Covid vaccines

Millions of people could be vaccinated as the UK government has secured a deal for promising vaccine candidates.

The deal, announced by business secretary Alok Sharma on Monday morning, the government as agreed significant partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and vaccine companies BioNTech, Pfizer and Valneva who are developing innovative new vaccines to protect people against coronavirus.

They have also secured access to treatments containing antibodies that can neutralise coronavirus from AstraZeneca to protect those who cannot receive vaccines such as cancer patients.

These partnerships could provide the UK with enough doses to vaccinate and protect priority groups, such as frontline health and social care workers and those with increased health risks.

With today’s announcement, the government has now secured access to three different types of vaccine that are being developed both nationally and across the world.

Kate Bingham, chair of the UK vaccine taskforce, told the Today program there is unlikely to be a single coronavirus vaccine that will suit everyone.

“What we are doing is identifying the most promising vaccines across the different categories, or different types of vaccine, so that we can be sure that we do have a vaccine in case one of those proves to be both safe and effective.

“It’s unlikely to be a single vaccine for everybody. We may well need different vaccines for different groups of people.”

Previous simulations run by experts hoped a vaccine would be available by the end of the year, with some estimates believing they could be available by mid-June.

The University of Oxford had previously partnered with AstraZeneca to help with industrial-scale vaccine manufacturing for distribution across the world.

The UK’s coronavirus rates are rapidly approaching 300,000, so a vaccine may be able to stop the spread of the disease in high-risk areas.

There are fears that as many as 200,000 people could die indirectly as a result of the pandemic, partly owing to delayed hospital operations.

Schools will need to be prepared for the possibility of future lockdowns as the country gets to grips with the spread, the education secretary added.

Gavin Williamson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We have been clear to schools that they have to plan for a scenario where they are in a situation where we see local lockdowns, and how we have that continuity of education that flows all the way through.”

As of today, the government has launched the NHS Covid-19 Vaccine Research Registry, which will allow members of the public to volunteer for future vaccine studies.

Participants will register their interest and be contacted to participate in clinical studies.

To allow for large-scale studies, the aim is to get 500,000 people signed up by October, which the government consider vital in the fight against the pandemic. These studies will help doctors better understand the effectiveness of each vaccine candidate and considerably speed up the effort to develop a safe and workable vaccine.

Business secretary Alok Sharma said: “The hunt to find a vaccine is a truly global endeavour and we are doing everything we can to ensure the British public get access to a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible.

“This new partnership with some of the world’s foremost pharmaceutical and vaccine companies will ensure the UK has the best chance possible of securing a vaccine that protects those most at risk.

“This new partnership with some of the world’s foremost pharmaceutical and vaccine companies will ensure the UK has the best chance possible of securing a vaccine that protects those most at risk.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock added that a safe and effective vaccine is our best hope of defeating coronavirus and returning life to normal.

He said: “We have some of our best scientists and researchers working on this, but members of the public have a vital role to play too. So I urge everyone who can to back the national effort and sign up to the NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry to help find a vaccine as soon as possible.

“Every volunteer will be doing their bit towards finding a vaccine for COVID-19 that will have the potential to save millions of lives around the world and bring this pandemic to an end.”

The government has secured 30 million doses from its agreement with BioNTech/Pfizer and an additional 60 million from its deal with Valneva.

The antibodies gained from AstraZeneca total one million doses of the Covid antibodies.

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