The World’s First Official Covid Vaccine Is Here

Brut India

As 40 million doses make their way to the UK, the country is the first in the West to authorise the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. But, Boris Johnson warns, immense logistical challenges lie ahead.

Transcript

00:00And now the scientists have done it.

00:04The virus has got to be stored at minus 70 degrees.

00:08Each person needs two injections, three weeks apart.

00:12So it will inevitably take some months

00:15before all the most vulnerable are protected.

00:18Long, cold months.

00:30It is almost a year since humanity has been tormented by COVID.

00:51Across the world, economic output has plummeted

00:54and a million and a half people have died.

00:57And all the time we've been waiting and hoping

01:00for the day when the searchlights of science

01:03would pick out our invisible enemy

01:06and give us the power to stop that enemy from making us ill.

01:11And now the scientists have done it.

01:15And they've used the virus itself

01:18to perform a kind of biological jiu-jitsu

01:21to turn the virus on itself in the form of a vaccine

01:26an idea that I think was pioneered in this country by Edward Jenner in 1796.

01:32And today we can announce that the government

01:35has accepted the recommendation from the

01:37Independent Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

01:42to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine

01:46for distribution across the United Kingdom.

01:49After months of clinical trials involving thousands of people

01:53to ensure that the vaccine meets the strictest

01:56internationally recognised standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.

02:01Thanks to the fantastic work of Kate Bingham and the Vaccines Taskforce

02:05we've purchased more than 350 million doses

02:08of seven different vaccine candidates.

02:11And the UK was the first country in the world

02:14to pre-order supplies of this Pfizer vaccine

02:18securing 40 million doses.

02:21Through our winter plan, the NHS has been preparing

02:24for the biggest programme of mass vaccination in the history of the UK

02:28and that's going to begin next week.

02:30The first phase will include care home residents,

02:33health and care staff, the elderly

02:35and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.

02:39But there are immense logistical challenges.

02:42The virus has got to be stored at minus 70 degrees.

02:46Each person needs two injections, three weeks apart.

02:50So it will inevitably take some months

02:53before all the most vulnerable are protected.

02:56Long, cold months.

02:58So it's all the more vital that as we celebrate this scientific achievement

03:03we're not carried away with over-optimism

03:07or fall into the naive belief that the struggle is over.

03:12It's not.

03:13We've got to stick to our winter plan,

03:16a comprehensive programme to suppress the virus,

03:19protect the NHS and the vulnerable,

03:21keep education and the economy going

03:24and use treatments, testing and vaccines

03:28to enable us to return to much closer to normal by the spring.

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