UK officials to combine Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID shots for vaccine trials

With inoculation set to start in the UK, health officials are now planning to combine the doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with that of AstraZeneca-University of Oxford. Earlier this month, British regulators approved the Pfizer’s vaccine candidate becoming the first country in the world to do so. However, researchers from the UK vaccine task force are now hoping to combine both vaccines to bolster their effectiveness against COVID-19.

In a report published on December 8, the UK vaccine task force stated that detailed studies aimed at finding the combined effect of both the vaccines were scheduled for next year. The group made the announcement in a report which also revealed that 337 million doses of various vaccine candidates have already been secured by the British administration. In addendum, the country was also looking forward to expanding the nation’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.

Massive challenge

Britain is set to start mass vaccination on December 8 (local time). The massive logistical challenge of inoculating as many as 67 million people is getting underway at about 50 hospitals.  According to a press release, care home residents and their carers would be a topmost priority to receive vaccine shots followed by elderly and frontline workers. Two groups, which would not receive the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine would include children below the age of 16 and pregnant women, owing to health risks.

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According to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the vaccine won’t be “generally available for children.” Clarifying the reason for the exception, the committee explained that most children have the mild and asymptomatic disease. “However it will be available for those children at very high risk of exposure and serious outcomes, such as older children with severe neuro-disabilities that require residential care,” the committee explained.

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The British regulator, MHRA has said that Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA-based vaccine that has shown 95 per cent efficacy, is safe for mass roll out with immunisations in the country starting "early next week" among the high priority groups. Britain has reportedly already placed an order of 40 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to provide the double-dose immunisation to at least 20 million people. 

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