Reports from the UK suggest that the new vaccine for the deadly Coronavirus disease could be delivered to the National Health Scheme (NHS) staff in the next ten days.
This would be before it is rolled out to care home residents and the over-80s. The report was made by the Guardian and it revealed that the NHS England is expected to get stocks of vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech on December 7, 8 or 9.
Per an earlier report, it was established that elderly people living in care homes and their staff should be vaccinated first, however, this seems to have changed as the latest emanating suggests that medical staff could get the vaccine first.
The decision to vaccinate these medical staff was based on on the nature of the Pfizer vaccine, which cannot be safely transported to care homes and private homes.
Per the report, NHS officials believe that the vaccine will become unstable and ineffective if it is moved more than four times.
A senior hospital executive who spoke to the Guardian said;
“We’ve been told to expect the vaccine on December 7 and plan to start vaccinating our staff all that week.
However, it’s the Pfizer vaccine we’re getting, so it can’t be moved again once it gets to us and we then have to use it within five days, as that’s its shelf life.
The original plan was to do care homes first. But once the vaccine gets to us it can’t be used in the community, so only NHS staff will be able to have it, at least initially.”
Source: ghgossip.com
