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A coronavirus vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been found to be 90 percent effective in preventing people from getting the virus. The game-changing news prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to outline the rationale for deciding who gets the jab first. As he explained, there are “several hurdles” to overcome before the vaccine can be rolled out in the UK.
“Earlier this year, the UK government ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough for about a third of the nation,” he explained.
If it passes all the rigorous safety checks and the results are consistent, a UK-wide NHS-led programme of vaccination distribution will be launched, the PM said.
To decide who will receive the jab first, Ms Johnson said he will take account of recommendations from a group of scientific experts – the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
A range of factors, such as the characteristics of different vaccines will be considered.
According to the JCVI, the following groups will be considered first:
- Older adults’ resident in a care home and care home workers
- All those 80 years of age and over and health and social care workers
- All those 75 years of age and over
- All those 70 years of age and over
- All those 65 years of age and over
- High-risk adults under 65 years of age
- Moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
- All those 60 years of age and over
- All those 55 years of age and over
- All those 50 years of age and over
- Rest of the population (priority to be determined.
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