British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that he would soon be vaccinated against COVID-19, “certainly with the AstraZeneca vaccine”, which the government assures us does not present a health hazard.
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“I will be vaccinated very soon,” Boris Johnson told Parliament during the weekly question-and-answer session for the head of government. After injecting a first dose of the vaccine to nearly 25 million people, authorities announced Wednesday to extend vaccination to people over 50 and the conservative leader is 56 years old.
“It will certainly be the AstraZeneca-Oxford that I will receive,” added the Prime Minister, of this British vaccine used alongside that of Pfizer-BioNTech in the vast vaccination campaign launched in December in the United Kingdom.
Criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 125,000 lives in the country, the conservative leader said he was “sorry” for what happened, saying he took “full responsibility” for the actions of the government .
The government has been reassuring about the AstraZeneca vaccine, the use of which has been suspended as a precaution by several countries worried about possible side effects, in particular the formation of blood clots (thrombosis).
“There is no evidence that these vaccines caused clots,” Health Minister Matt Hancock wrote in The Sun tabloid on Wednesday, stressing that this is not just his opinion, but that of the British regulator , the MHRA, the WHO and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
“More than 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have now been administered in the United Kingdom and the rate of (clot) cases reported among those vaccinated is lower than what would naturally be expected in the general population,” said the Minister .
“Let’s keep calm”
According to the Minister of Health, the United Kingdom is “on track” to achieve its goal of offering a dose of vaccine to all adults by the end of July.
Matt Hancock added that “this week, an increase in supplies will help us to further accelerate the deployment”, as other countries denounce delays in the supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“The most important thing for us now is to stay calm and keep vaccinating,” wrote Matt Hancock, hijacking a popular British formula.
Professor Jeremy Brown, a respiratory medicine specialist and member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) said Wednesday that the suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine by several countries was “not logical”.
“We know the vaccine works […] It’s an incredibly effective vaccine, and by using it you prevent deaths, ”he told the BBC.
He also told the Good Morning Britain show that he feared “that with what is happening in Europe, people in the United Kingdom are losing confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine”.
In an article in the Future Healthcare Journal, published by the Royal college of Physicians, which represents 39,000 doctors worldwide, Prince Charles attacked the anti-vaccine movement.
“Who would have thought that in the 21st century there would be a significant lobby opposing vaccination, given its past record in eradicating so many terrible diseases and its current potential to protect and liberate some of the most vulnerable in our society from the coronavirus? ”asked the heir to the throne, in this article.