Oxford vaccine puts UK ‘ahead of game’ in pandemic says expert
The pioneering vaccine has yet to be given the green light by the EU, despite having been given the thumbs-up in the UK, as efforts are stepped up to vaccinate as many people as possible with the NHS under increasing pressure. However, Ray Bassett, Ireland’s former ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas, told Express.co.uk: “Our Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has just been rebuffed publicly when he suggested that Ireland should bring in some supplies of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID vaccine in anticipation of its approval by the European Medicines Agency.
“The Irish Government was sharply told by the Commission that this would not be permitted.
“It is hard to see how any democratic Government should allow itself to be overruled by an unelected body like the Commission especially when the health of its citizens is involved in a pandemic.”
The reasons for the EU’s stance are unclear – but given the strained nature of relations between the bloc and the UK in the light of Brexit it seems reasonable to think it may be a factor.
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Former Brexit Party MEP Lance Foreman last month suggested as much earlier this month.
He told Express.co.uk: “The interesting thing will be how keen they are to have the British one.
“I wonder how happy they would be to have a British-designed vaccine.”
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Meanwhile several EU-based politicians have been critical of the UK’s decision to clear the Pfizer vaccine several weeks before Brussels did likewise.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo offered his take on the situation last month.
He told broadcaster VRT News last month: “In the UK, they have started vaccination earlier, that’s correct.
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“But they have used their population as guinea pigs over there, and they have opted not to do these extra tests.”
Speaking today in Ireland’s main legislature, the Dail, Taoiseach Micheal Martin made it clear an earlier consignment of the Oxford jab would not be forthcoming.
He said: “We have a much more comprehensive and detailed plan in terms of ramping up then the volume for the next phase, particularly after the authorisation of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which should be on the 29 January with from the EMA and then delivery for their timeline for mid-February.
“That would be followed then by the Janssen vaccine, sometimes a month after that in terms of authorisation a then a little bit later on we’ll be getting more supplies of Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna.”
Oxford scientists are preparing to rapidly produce new versions of their jab to combat more contagious COVID-19 variants discovered in the UK, South Africa and Brazil.
The team behind the vaccine from Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc is undertaking feasibility studies to reconfigure the technology, the Daily Telegraph reported today.
Scientists are working on estimating how quickly they could reconfigure their ChAdOx vaccine platform.
A university spokesman said Oxford was carefully assessing the impact of new variants on vaccine immunity and evaluating the processes needed for rapid development of adjusted COVID-19 vaccines.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson today said other nations’ medicines regulators will be ready and able to give approval to new versions of COVID-19 vaccines designed to counter new variants of the coronavirus which may appear.
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