Vaccine may be 'weeks away' for UK health workers

Britain's health workers could receive a novel coronavirus vaccine in a matter of weeks, according to published reports.

The Mail on Sunday reported that it had seen an email sent to staff at the National Health Service, or NHS, that reveals preparations for a national vaccination program before Christmas.

The newspaper also reported the United Kingdom government is seeking to circumvent the European Union approval process and move ahead with a mass rollout of the program if a safe jab is found before the end of the Brexit transition period on Dec 31.

A vaccine program would mean social restrictions that have crippled the country and the economy since March could be relaxed. It is expected the vaccine would be given in two doses, 28 days apart.

Glen Burley, chief executive of George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Warwickshire, wrote to NHS staff earlier this month. In his memo, he said: "Our Trust, alongside NHS organizations nationally, has been told to be prepared to start a COVID-19 staff vaccine program in early December."

"The latest intelligence states a coronavirus vaccine should be available this year with NHS staff prioritized prior to Christmas."

However, the newspaper report added the timeline has not yet been confirmed as none of the vaccines currently being developed have gained clinical approval.

David Eltringham, managing director at the Trust, told the Mail: "We don't have a definite date for delivery of the vaccine, but we are making ready to deploy the vaccine from the beginning of December."

A senior government source told the paper: "We have made sure that if a vaccine is proven safe and effective we won't be held back from deploying it by the need for approval from Brussels."

A vaccine being developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, now in the final stages of trials, is most likely the one that health workers would receive.

Rushing ahead with a vaccine program could hamper efforts to test and create improved versions, scientists warned.

Quoted in The Guardian, Adam Finn, a professor at the University of Bristol, said immunization is not simply a matter of switching off the virus once a vaccine appears.

He said: "The vaccines coming through fastest are the most experimental.

"It is possible they won't be all that great and that others－created using more tried-and-tested but slower methods－might be better."

"But to prove that point will become very difficult if lots of individuals have already been given the first vaccine. It will need vast numbers of people to demonstrate which is best or if a different vaccine is more suitable for particular groups, like the elderly".

It comes as tens of thousands of people on Saturday joined a protest march through central London against novel coronavirus social restrictions.

The protesters called for an end to lockdowns and other measures they described as a threat to civil rights, and chanted for people to take off their masks.