A 90-year-old British woman is the first person in the world to receive a clinically authorised, fully tested coronavirus vaccine.
Healthcare staff, certain people over 80 and care home workers will be among the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in what is being called the largest vaccination programme in British history.
The National Health Service began delivering the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine this morning.
Margaret Keenan received the jab at about 6.45am in Coventry, marking the start of a historic mass vaccination programme. Keenan was reported as saying:
“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19, it’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year. I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too.”
Staff Nurse Parsons, the person giving the jab, was also quoted as saying:
“I’m just glad that I’m able to play a part in this historic day. The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the NHS, but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
The government has secured 800,000 doses but orders have been placed for 40 million in total. It is understood that the majority of doses will not become available until next year, although another four million doses are expected to be available by the end of the year.
70 hospital hubs across the UK are now gearing up to give the jab.
This is an awesome effort to get to this stage from across government and the private sector. And it will be fundamental to our security too – we shouldn’t lose sight of that.
Absolutely Bob, superb effort a credit to our wonderful NHS and all the hard work of the Government putting this in place for us.
Ger ready for the usual wingers, I’ll save them some time.
Look how many have died before something was done though….
Whine about Dominic Cummings….
Whine about Boris, lack of PPE etc….
Whine about Brexit….
Its been going on ‘all year’ and Government haven’t taken my fragile personal feelings into account, or been round to flush my toilet….
I think that about covers it Bob.
You’re an idiot!
Really
Just the sort of insightful and thought provoking rebuke I would expect from UKDJ Socialist People’s Party LOL.
Look at the comment below and explain why you appear not to have any sense of shame. Your pants have been pulled down and your nose painted red….but here you are with your shallow populism playing to the gallery…pathetic!
Oh dear, toys back in pram, in must time for a nap…….
“Whine about lack of PPE”? The lack of PPE was an incredibly dangerous and entirely avoidable situation. People are right to moan about it.
I’m not sure it was avoidable George, did anyone horde enough PPE for the pandemic??
Nope, and that was the problem. Would you complain if we went to war and there weren’t any bombs ready to drop? Same problem. You have to prepare.
John, there weren’t even the most basic of preparations anywhere in the UK with regards to PPE despite the intention being in place for some time. Frontline staff had to use bin bags for aprons…
It’s worse George, we had great preparations ( literally world leaders in pandemic and civil contingency) from around 2010 till around 2013, HMG then let it all rot on shelves for 7-8 years or reformed it to death, ignored the warnings and accepted the risk In the hope it would not happen…… It was an utter breach of trust, my anger and the anger of may people I have worked And trained with is boundless and I know more a a couple of people who will be walking away and retiring early after the pandemic has stabilised to a sessional problem.
Point taken George, but was any European Country prepared for this level of pandemic??
It seems that although Boris has only been in charge for a year, its all his fault somehow. I think he has stepped up and the government has largely done a good job.
I guess its the old British condition of self deprecation, we put the boot into ourselves, we don’t need others to do it!
Hi john, it was, we let our pandemic stocks rot on shelves since 2010 without replacing and rotating out.
if we had a pandemic in say 2012 all those stocks and preparations were still inplace.
The need was know it could have been managed. The executive choice was to accept the risk that a pandemic would not happen this year…….they were right for about 7 years….then they weren’t. There are not many clinical or care staff that will be willing to forget and forgive that. It was a broken trust.
I think it is fair to say HMG have got some things right and some things wrong in a set of circumstances the western world has not seen in a long time. Some criticism in my opinion is OTT, some fully justified.
That applies to all European nations too.
Furlong has generally been seen as a success. PPE clearly not so.
As for mass vaccination, wonderful, we will all be able to stop social distancing and go out en masse to Oxford Street, pubs, bars, restaurants, parties, beaches, and summer holidays.
Which has been happening anyway looking at the daily news and what I see with my own eyes every time I leave the front door.
After almost a year it seems people still have no idea what social distancing means.
And that is the governments fault?????
No. It is the decadent liberal western culture of no respect, no responsibility, and pure idiotic selfishness of millions of people, many young adults.
Vs an authoritarian China where people obey or are punished. No wonder China is booming and the west is in disarray.
Interestingly, in far east Asian nations who have to deal with pandemics more often this attitude does not seem to be evident. If you have a cold, you wear a mask. People seem to have more respect for rules and what the government tells them.
THAT is what my wife and I will take from our experience this year.
I know exactly where John is coming from.
HMG are wrong no matter which way they turn it seems.
It is so easy for HM opposition, they don’t have to take decisions and have Captain Hindsight at the helm!
I do hope that the legacy of Covid 19 is a greater awareness of personal hygiene. The wearing of masks on public transport and the washing of hands seem sensible basic precautions to carry forwards! We can learn a lot from Singapore and other well organised Asian states and, perhaps, they might look more carefully at the animal life that they consume! It’s time to clamp down on absurd health benefits of eating endangered animal species!
Afternoon H.
Just seen what my phone did with spelling “Furlong” Haha!
I’ve always habitually opened pub, toilet and restaurant doors with my elbows or a tissue, long before Covid, so I’m not too bad there.
But washing hands after a handshake or touching taps used by others never occurred to me, though now it seems insane not to.
This whole experience has changed some of my behaviour, no doubt. Like you say, it’s awareness. That’s not to say I was unhygenic, it’s that I’m maybe OTT now, which might actually be a good thing.
The lads at work look at me like I’m daft for wearing gloves as well as sanitizing everything.
Careful Danielle, it sounds as if you are developing the Howard Hughes complex. When you get to the stage of wearing a service respirator, you know you’ve got problems!
Ha! Well, like him I do have mild OCD, as I’m very neat and tidy.
But maybe I should look on eBay…I’ve got a trainee with me from tomorrow in the box, not ideal. So a respirator would certainly get others talking and my wife would definitely by happier!
I’m sure the trainee won’t mind wearing a mask. I believe your wife is a teacher…how is she managing?
He’d better, or I will close out the box and stop the trains!
You’ve a good memory, thanks. She’s no longer in that job, she hated the politics and the workload.
Luckily her current job allows her to work from home.
Sometimes she struggles with the lack of social interaction, that was a big part of her daily routine. Now it is all about ZOOM!
That’s all alien to me.
And in my job, as you know, I’m institutionalised, working with people??? Really!
Sounds a lot safer but, although teachers’ moan about the workload, we do miss the social interaction that goes with the job. I know that I do….could have gone on for a few more years had it not been for bloody Covid 19. On the other hand, I am very lucky, others have paid the ultimate price for their dedication and professionalism in the NHS.
Daniele,
There has been a lot of smokes and mirrors regards COVID which the usual suspects have used in which to promote and further their own political agenda. For example whilst the Uk has been openly berated for the high death toll, what they fail to reveal is the high levels of recording the Uk uses, levels which are not replicated elsewhere. Before anybody attacks me have a butchers at the NHS website which records all the deaths across England and Wales. It really is comprehensive and I have not seen another like it
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/
Pop down to weekly deaths and have a butchers (Its an excel file) it exposes a lot of lies. For example the so called high death toll for the BLAME population which stands somewhere between 15 to 19% of the population. The total figure according to the NHS is 12% which about equal to the BLAME population 20 years ago.
Every step the Government has taken has been attacked as the wrong one with pressure placed to change tack. Even now with the enrolment of the jab, the usual suspects are screaming the Jab won’t work.
Thank you Farouk. I will.
Very interesting read Farouk thanks for sharing, that won’t sit well will some…
I suppose it’s partly because the liberal leaning left have had their respective arses handed too them over and over again in the last 4 years, they lash out in anger….
And its a shame the people with center politics like myself have to put up with the extreme left or Right politics where common sense is often left behind and the so called alternative media love to blame MSM for mistruths when its the alternative media crap that fans the flames on such extreme views not MSM lol!!
Absolutely Danielle, re my ‘slightly’ in tongue cheek response, PPE was certainly an issue, but, it was for all countries and the government couldn’t magic millions of PPE items out of thin air overnight…
Well the Chinese could, but to be fair they make it in country anyway!
Like yourself, we have isolated and followed the rules, many simply haven’t bothered and blamed Boris for the rise in infections.
So easy to blame the Government for the poisoned chalice they were handed.
A big lack of personal responsibility and general whining, people should be thankful for the massive efforts made on their behalf..
John I’m going to have to pull you up on a couple of things.
1)Cummings totally messed up our Public Health messaging with his activities, because the executive defended him they had to change a very clear and brilliant Public health message……say at home, save live protect the nhs…was and is a brilliant bit of messaging, they changed it the week Cummings was found to have not stayed at home. There is a great principle in public health..You much have the faith and trust of the public ( HMG even lost the faith of its own public servants over that one).
2) The PPE issue was a national disgrace. Around 2010 we had the best pandemic ( and civil contingency) preparations in the western world….all that PPE was allowed to do out of date without rotating it out for use in wider services as it would have needed replacements purchased. They then stuck new labels over the old expiration dates when found out…it was not Boris is was every health minister since around 2013 ( this was the earliest expire date date I’ve seen). To follow this up the lack of stocks lead to a collapse in logistics, inefficient contracts to buy whatever they could at any price and finally significant reductions in the Spec of what PPE staff should be wearing , with furious arguments between professionals bodies and groups such as the U.K. resus council, royal colleges etc on one side and PHE/NHSE on the other). With provider organisations and staff stuck between between not knowing what was safe or legally appropriate.
3) The guidance was shambolic, I have seen contradictions in advice all over the place, with clinical staff told to do completely contradictory things at the same time, while being bombarded with increasing loads of advice ( it actual took me 2 days to read and review the central guidance on one subject released over a 4 week period ( it was literally the grand old duke of York on a massively complex scale).
4) destruction of public health. The Langley reforms ( one of the biggest cases of health policy vandalism in living memory) moved public health away from the control of the NHS and into county council control, at same time as county council budgets have been raided, this lead to a massive degradation in local public health. The executive agency created by the reforms to oversee national public health agenda (Public health England ) has always been a paper tiger.
To say NHS and care staff have been upset over the impact of these things is to put it bluntly an understatement, most were and are furious about these.
The NHS from senior leaders in CCGS to care assistants on a ward have worked and sweeter blood, please don’t disregard their anger and upset in these areas.
Morning Jonathan,
Many thanks for your detailed reply.
I am certainly not knocking the NHS in any way, they have done a fantastic job of containing and treating the pandemic, best they can.
It seems to me, a lot of the issues go back to Cameron, he instigated cuts in areas he shouldn’t have and left areas he possibly should have cut!
The PPE situation is not dissimilar to the cuts made in Fire Service Terrorist emergency response units across the country at the same time, ie decontamination equipment quietly withdrawn to store etc.
He took risks were he thought he could get away with it, (you flagged up the PPE), also the dangerous cuts made to defence and of coarse his biggest gamble, Brexit!
There does however seem to be a need to have a good long think about what we expect the NHS to do as a nation, I have relatives that work in NHS procurement and there is (as I am sure you see too) a lot of money wasted that should go the front line.
Its a massive organisation that does a great job, but reform should always be looked at to see if there are better ways of spending money to maximise the capital spent on Cancer treatment etc.
There does seem to be an element, that resists any changes on principle, reforms not always a bad thing…
We spend a lot of money on the NHS and the reality is, if we doubled the budget, people would still complain there wasn’t enough money to do A, B or C….
I would be interested to know your thought on what reforms should be made to improve the response next time round?
Cheers, John.
To be honest John I think we need to look at the damage, fragmentation and waste created by the sudo market. I would both create more cohesive blocks and regionalise. What most people don’t realise is the NHS as your average joe thinks of it does not exist, the NHS is a badge we hand out to organisations that hold a contract with an NHS commissioner to provide a set of services. So even in a county it’s not a single service, it around 100 different organisations all with a really big complex contract to do a set of things for an agreed Amount of money….
if I was reforming the nhs my key area would be:
1) make it more locally accountable, a lot of inefficiency is created by upward reporting and reaction to things from the centre. I would much prefer spending my time sorting out and improving things that the public in my county have asked for, over what has the politicians in central gov spooked. I would creat accountability at a county level ( say around 1 million population going down to half a million in the really rural areas.
2) remove the internal market, the NHS spends a fortune on procuring contracts for services then having to oversee the contract and check it’s getting what it’s paying for. These contracts are hard to get flexibility in and the provider can milk the system if there is an uncontracted need…..we will do it but your paying double tariff on this.
3) bring things like public health and social care back into the control of these new cohesive nhs bocks…good social care is health care ask any nurse the importance of washing, feeding and helping a person feel good about life…
so remove contracting and fragmentation as the method of ensuring quality, efficiency and efficacy instead use local accountability To the public as a way to ensure good quality safe services.
Can’t argue with that shopping list of ideas Jonathan!
The regional differences in the same services are both striking and quite alarming.
Post code lottery.
By way of a personal example, a good friend who lived down in Gloucester had a series of strokes a couple of years ago, the care he received was quite frankly utterly crap!
When my uncle had a stroke last year, he lives in Somerset and went to the RUH Bath, his treatment was excellent, from start to finish, he couldn’t fault it, quite outstanding, from emergency treatment, all the way through to speech therapy.
Lots of good points there Jonathan.
Some other things we have learned I hope.
a) Focus on protecting the vulnerable not eradicating the disease. I see Ireland is going to vaccinate the young before the middle aged. The heck with that. They are fit enough to look after themselves.
b) MRNA vaccines are a major technology leap and the culmination of decades of scientific advance released by Watson and Crick. They protect vulnerable individuals rather than requiring whole populations of fit people to be vaccinated simply to reduce the statistical probability of infection.
c) We need to review our relationship with nature. This is not the first virus to emerge from China. They need to stop eating snakes, bats, rhino horns and sharks fins.
d) Families matter.
e) We really are all in this together.
f) The medics and pharma companies need to review current medical practice and find treatments that don’t nobble people’s immune systems. NSAIs , steroids, beta blockers and likely a lot more commonly prescribed drugs weaken and distort the immune system. Much of this suffering has been self inflicted.
Have a good Christmas
I’m not too sure about ‘C’ Paul.
Having spent a fair bit of time in China, it appears to me it’s more of an issue with regular livestock and people living far too closely together.
If you have ever visited a rural Chinese market, it’s quite the eye opener, raw and cooked meat together of all different types, 25 years ago, dog meat was common too.
The world population has doubled in the last 50 years and it’s reaching unsustainable levels, more people, more intensive farming in an ever increasing and never stopping cycle….
With this worldwide environment, It’s no wonder viruses will occasionally jump species and mutate.
Viruses have never had it so good, animal species to jump between and a density of people travelling in all directions to propagate!
One thing is for sure, there will be another virus waiting to spring forward…
Well well well it seems censorship has infected the UKDJ hmmm this information from HM Govs own website that seems to contradict the first sentence of this article
4.6 Fertility-
It is UNKNOWN whether COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 has an impact on fertility
Poor show Very poor show and very UN British