COVID-19 vaccine will ‘substantially reduce deaths’ – and UK will have up to four jabs to use by mid-2021

The coronavirus jab being rolled out across the UK will “substantially” reduce deaths and there will be up to four vaccines to use by the middle of next year, the chief medical officer for England has said.

Professor Chris Whitty also said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will drastically reduce hospital admissions from COVID-19.

A UK-wide rollout of the vaccine began on Tuesday in what health leaders hailed as a “turning point” in the pandemic.

Follow live updates as Whitty and Vallance face questions on UK’s response to pandemic

Professor Whitty told the Commons Science and Technology Committee this morning that he expected the UK to have between three to four vaccines to choose from by the middle of 2021.

However he also advised the rollout process should still proceed “carefully”.

Professor Whitty said: “The aim would be to roll out this vaccine and any others that get a licence and are effective and safe.

“We expect probably by the middle of the year to have a portfolio of three or four vaccines which we can actually use.”

Professor Whitty also said he believes the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is likely to reduce transmission of the virus, and continued: “It will reduce the mortality rate substantially.

“Then it’ll start to reduce the number of people who go into hospital.

“And at a certain point, through society, through political leaders, will say this level of risk is something we are prepared to tolerate.

“For example, in an average year 7,000 people die of flu.

“At this point, the risk is now low enough that we can do away with the most onerous things we have to deal with.”

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The government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, who was also sat before the committee, said the “biggest risk we face now is that people think it’s all over”.

He continued: “It isn’t all over.

“We have a very important light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re a long way off.

“It’s not the time to relax things. If that happens we will have a big surge.”

He also said there would still be coronavirus transmission among the population once the most vulnerable are vaccinated.

When asked when lockdowns will no longer be needed, he replied: “It’s a science-informed political decision.

“What we’re looking at is exactly that sort of question, as to depending on the effects of the vaccine on transmission, which we don’t know yet, as Chris (Whitty) has said, you would have different models as to what that would mean in terms of the degree of immunity across the population you will end up with, that will be relevant to keeping suppression of transmission versus protecting those who are most vulnerable.

“Priority number one has to be protect those who are most vulnerable, you can see the effects of that.

“There will still be transmission amongst others at that point, so we need to be aware of that, and then we will know a bit more as we learn about transmission across the different vaccines, what effect they have.

“But, ultimately, then there are some decisions to be made about how much risk society wishes to take with that.”

Professor Whitty later described so-called “anti-vaxxers”, people who are opposed to the vaccination rollout, as a “small group with very weird views”.

He continued: “They are almost not worth acknowledging in public communication terms because nothing will persuade them.

“But there are people who are waiting to see – and that is entirely reasonable.”

The committee went on to ask the government advisers what can be learned from the UK’s handling of the pandemic so far, with the scientists saying testing and contact-tracing were two main areas.

Sir Patrick Vallance said it would have been beneficial for the UK to have pre-trained contact-tracers.

(c) Sky News 2020: COVID-19 vaccine will ‘substantially reduce deaths’ – and UK will have up to four jabs to use by mid-2021