No doubt over safety of corona vaccine, says Dr Raine

LONDON: The head of the UK’s medicines regulator has said there “should be no doubt” about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine which will be rolled out this week in the largest scale immunisation programme in the UK’s history.

Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which approved the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, said there should be “real confidence” in the rigour of their approval.

Vaccinations will be administered at dozens of hospital hubs from Tuesday – with people aged 80 and over, care home workers and NHS workers who are at higher risk the first to receive the jab.

The distribution of the vaccine across the UK is being undertaken by Public Health England and the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through systems specially adapted from those used for the national immunisation programmes.

NHS England said staff were working through the weekend to prepare for the launch. Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show about how important the public health message is to make sure that people actually take the vaccine, Dr Raine said: “It’s vitally important.

“And I would really like to emphasise that the highest standards of scrutiny, of safety and of effectiveness and quality have been met, international standards.

“And so there should be real confidence in the rigour of our approval. “More than that, our Commission on Human Medicines has scrutinised every piece of data too, so there should be no doubt whatever that this is a very safe and highly effective vaccine.”

Dr Raine was asked how she had coped with becoming a “global figure” and about reports that the Queen, 94, will have the Pfizer injection within weeks.

She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr: “I’m proud, I’m honoured. I think that news that you’ve just given us is humbling, and it’s everything that we’re here to do at the MHRA.

“We’re a public health organisation, we work as full partners, if I can say, in the public health family, and our goal is totally to protect every member of the population, Her Majesty of course, as well.”

Environment Secretary George Eustice said it will be a “personal decision” for the Queen whether she takes the vaccine. Asked on Times Radio if he would like to see the monarch take the vaccine and then announce publicly that she had done so, Eustice said: “It will be a personal decision for the Queen, as it is for everyone.”

When asked about reports that the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, 99, would have the jab within weeks and share the news, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “Medical decisions are personal and this is not something we will comment on.”

Asked about the impact of Brexit on the rollout of the vaccines, Dr Raine told Marr: “What I’d like to say is that our goal at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is to make sure that whatever the outcome, whatever the deal, that medicines and medical devices and vaccines reach anyone in all parts of the country in the same way, without any interruption at all.”

Environment Secretary George Eustice said there will be no disruption to the vaccine, telling Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “Huge amounts of work has gone on to maintain the flow of goods at the border in the event of there being a no-deal Brexit and we have also got contingency plans in place including a government procured ferry that is on standby and of course, the option, should it be needed, to use air freight too. We have got many contingency plans in place and there won’t be any effect on the deployment of this vaccine from a no-deal Brexit.”

A further 397 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK as of Saturday, while there were another 15,539 cases.