(17.02.2021)
Dr Dix added: ‚I think 40 days would be a real stretch but we would aim for something as good as that.
‚But certainly within 60 days and then, after that, we would start the manufacturing.‘
Manufacturing vaccines takes different amounts of time depending on the type of jab.
(09.02.2021)
It expects to have a vaccine designed to address the variant discovered in South Africa ready by autumn.
Dr Dix added: ‚I think 40 days would be a real stretch but we would aim for something as good as that.
‚But certainly within 60 days and then, after that, we would start the manufacturing.‘
Manufacturing vaccines takes different amounts of time depending on the type of jab.
(30.05.2020)
Normally, two doctors are needed to certify a death, one of whom has been treating the patient or who knows them and has seen them recently. That has changed. For Covid-19 only, the certification can be made by a single doctor, and there is no requirement for them to have examined, or even met, the patient. A video-link consultation in the four weeks prior to death is now felt to be sufficient for death to be attributed to Covid-19.
(30.05.2020)
Normally, two doctors are needed to certify a death, one of whom has been treating the patient or who knows them and has seen them recently. That has changed. For Covid-19 only, the certification can be made by a single doctor, and there is no requirement for them to have examined, or even met, the patient. A video-link consultation in the four weeks prior to death is now felt to be sufficient for death to be attributed to Covid-19.
Department of Health figures show the daily laboratory-confirmed death toll has risen 50 per cent week-on-week, with data suggesting the total number of coronavirus victims — both suspected and confirmed — has now passed the 100,000 mark.
Pfizer–BioNTech say they do not have evidence of what happens to immunity beyond 21 days after the first dose.
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The JCVI adds that: “Protective immunity from the first dose likely lasts for a duration of 12 weeks.” But it has not published evidence to support this.
Health secretary Matt Hancock has said that Boris Johnson’s tier system is “no longer strong enough” to deal with the new more virulent variant of coronavirus.
(30.12.2020)
The Wrexham plant is able to produce around 300 million doses of the vaccine each year, and has been producing 150,000 phials a day for months in readiness to roll out the vaccine across the UK.
The CP Pharmaceuticals lab will carry out the „fill and finish“ stage of the manufacturing process. This involves dispensing the vaccine into vials ready for it to be sent out across the country.
The 18-month agreement with parent company Wockhardt was announced back in August.
Government sources have indicated an announcement later will see more areas move into tier four – „stay at home“.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is due to detail the changes – which could be introduced within days – in the House of Commons after 14:30 GMT.
(23.12.2020)
(28.11.2020)
(28.11.2020)
(21.12.2020)
The Government is aiming for two million people to receive their first dose of either the Oxford vaccine or the Pfizer jab within a fortnight as part of a major ramping up of the inoculation programme.
(23.11.2020)
Scientists took a common cold virus that infected chimpanzees and engineered it to become the building block of a vaccine against almost anything.
Before Covid, 330 people had been given ChAdOx1 based-vaccines for diseases ranging from flu to Zika virus, and prostate cancer to the tropical disease chikungunya.
The virus from chimps is genetically modified so it cannot cause an infection in people. It can then be modified again to contain the genetic blueprints for whatever you want to train the immune system to attack.
The hope in Downing Street is that the Oxford vaccine will get the green light by the end of the year. This would allow the Prime Minister to start laying out plans for restrictions to be lifted.
The MHRA drugs regulator has been doing its final review of the vaccine for three weeks now, since November 27, with a decision expected by next Tuesday.
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However, they made a decision about Pfizer and BioNTech‘s jab within 10 days of being instructed to do so by the Department of Health.
(09.12.2020)
Little is known about the interests of the doctors, scientists, and academics on whose advice the UK government relies to manage the pandemic. Attempts to discover more are frequently thwarted, finds Paul D Thacker
Kritiker der Regierungspolitik in Großbritannien führen zur Untermauerung ihrer Forderungen just den Chef des GOS, Patrick Vallance, an. Der führenden Wissenschaftsberater der Johnson-Regierung und zugleich Vorsitzende der Impf-Taskforce besitze Aktien des Pharmaunternehmens GlaxoSmithKline im Wert von 600.000 britischer Pfund. Eben dieses Unternehmen hatte einen undurchsichtigen Corona-Impf-Deal mit der Regierung geschlossen.
Laut dem von Pfizer veröffentlichten Studienprotokoll wurden in der zulassungsrelevanten Untersuchung aber keine Teilnehmer aufgenommen, die eine Vorgeschichte schwerer Nebenwirkungen im Zusammenhang mit einem Impfstoff und/oder schwerer allergischer Reaktionen auf einen Inhaltsstoff der Studie haben.
Das MHRA hatte als weltweit erste Regulierungsbehörde dem Impfstoff vor einer Woche eine Notfallgenehmigung erteilt. Sie will die Fälle nun untersuchen.
They developed symptoms of “anaphylactoid reaction” shortly after receiving the vaccine, but both recovered after the appropriate treatment.
After the incident, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told NHS trusts that anyone who has a history of “significant” allergic reactions – including to medicines, food or vaccines – should not currently receive the vaccine.
In fact, AZ has already produced a bulk vaccine that’s kept at freezing temperatures.
UK Vaccine Taskforce Chair Kate Bingham said that the vaccine was being made in bulk first, known as „drug substance“, but could not yet be put into vials until more was known on the timing of late-stage trial data.
„We‘ve not yet put them into vials because as soon as you put them into vials you start the clock for the… shelf life, or how quickly you have to use the vaccine,“ she told lawmakers.
She is expected to leave her post at the end of the year, according to a government source who said her contract ran until January 2021 and she had always intended to leave at that point.
Boris Johnson faces a rebellion from his backbenches over the new national lockdown restrictions for England amid warnings that the measures would be „disastrous“ for the economy.
This comes after Cabinet Minister Michael Gove admitted the four-week-long national lockdown could be extended beyond December 2.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith wrote in the UK‘s Telegraph newspaper that the month-long lockdown showed government was „giving in to the scientific advisers,“ claiming that government experts had „pressurised“ Johnson into the step.
„Normally, advisers advise and ministers decide. Yet that system has broken down with Sage [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] believing its advice to be more like commandments written on stone and its members publicly lecturing the Government over the airways,“ Duncan Smith wrote.
Ms Bingham was appointed chair of the UK‘s Vaccine Taskforce for Covid-19 in May and reports directly to the Prime Minister on the progress of a coronavirus vaccine, which experts say is key to controlling the pandemic.
The taskforce, which Ms Bingham says was the ‚brainchild of Sir Patrick Vallance‘ — Number 10‘s chief scientific adviser, is at the forefront of putting plans in place to get the UK population vaccinated.