Less than half of the UK's population can expect inoculation against coronavirus the government official in charge of the initiative has revealed in a statement attempting to dispel the public's "misguided" perception of the project.
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Kate Bingham, managing partner and fund manager of SV Health Investors and the head of the government's vaccine task force told the FT that inoculating everyone in the country was "never going to happen," adding that they were "only going to be vaccinating those at risk."
This comes as the UK's coronavirus rates have spiked, with over 10,000 new cases being reported on Sunday alone, prompting the government to consider new lockdown restrictions to stem the spread of the virus.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned the UK is for a "bumpy winter" and has urged Britons to act "fearlessly but with common sense."
Cases have spiked despite roughly a quarter of the population living under tighter lockdown restrictions, and the PM has mandated that dealing with the crisis remains the government's top priority.
The government has revealed that an issue was found overnight on October 2 in "the automated process that sends case data to Public Health England (PHE)."
As a result, the number of coronavirus cases published between October 3-4 included 15,841 additional cases from between September 25 and October 2.
Ms. Bingham said the government's current plan of action was to inoculate 30 million people against the virus if a suitable vaccine is found.
This initially seems to be a significant reduction of the planned 90m doses proposed in a deal made in July. Each vaccine will supposedly require two doses, which is the reason deals with vaccine manufacturers were made in multiples of 60m, according to Bingham.
The AstraZeneca partnership is still on the portfolio, but other options were dropped after proving ineffective.
Initial projections estimated that a viable vaccine could be available by the end of the year. However, current trends dictate this may no longer be a realistic target.
However, scientists involved in the project forecast that initial testing could be in progress by the end of the month, with the most pessimistic projections saying tests should be underway by mid-2021.
Ms. Bingham added: “People keep talking about ‘time to vaccinate the whole population’, but that is misguided. There’s going to be no vaccination of people under 18. It’s an adult-only vaccine, for people over 50, focusing on health workers and care home workers and the vulnerable.”
Some public health experts have accused the government of a lack of transparency and clarity in how they are dealing with the issue, pointing to the fact that much of the population expected the vaccine to be available to everyone in the country.
Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at Edinburgh University said the details on the project hadn't been clearly communicated to the public.
She said: “It would be good if they had a conversation about how that priority process will go. You could make the argument that the people you need to vaccinate are people from a deprived background. The best way to shield is to be wealthy.”
Ms. Bingham added the vaccination would be aimed at those "most at risk" and added that inoculating healthy people, who are at a far lower risk level and less likely to suffer serious consequences from Covid "could cause them freak harm," potentially tipping the scales in the risk-benefit analysis.
David Nabarro, a special envoy to the World Health Organisation (WHO) also told the FT that addressing the coronavirus pandemic was "not going to be a case of vaccinating everyone."
He said: “There will be a definite analysis of who is the priority for the vaccine, based on where they live, their occupation and their age bracket. We’re not fundamentally using the vaccine to create population immunity, we’re just changing the likelihood people will get harmed or hurt. It will be strategic.”
The European Commission likewise launched a pledge back in April to launch a vaccine to be shipped around the globe. As of May, the scheme had raised €7.4 billion to help spearhead research on mass-inoculation.
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