New advice comes after two people with existing allergies who had the vaccine on Tuesday had allergic reactions
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Whitty told the the committee that he had been discussing the allergy reaction issue to the Pfizer vaccine (see 9.50am) with Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), at 11.30pm last night.
He said the MHRA was in a “very good position” to pick up issues with any vaccine. He said:
Dr Raine talked about identifying things once a vaccine is in use.
The initial process, very importantly, picks up common side effects, that’s what the big phase two and then subsequently, if they are safe, phase three clinical trials allow to happen.
Back at the committee hearing Prof Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, is now giving evidence.
He said that by the middle of next year he expected the UK to have three or four vaccines it could use. He said that for the next few months restrictions would have to stay in place, but that after that there would be a gradual loosening of the rules.
Chris Whitty: “We expect by the middle of the year probably to have a portfolio of three or four vaccines which we can actually use.”
Whitty on lockdown:
“For the next three months we will not have sufficient protection … the idea that we can suddenly stop now because the vaccine’s here, that would be premature.”
Putting distance between science and politics. “It’s a science-informed political decision”
Chris Whitty predicts a “gradual retreat” from social distancing rules once 20 million or so high risk people have been vaccinated.
As risk of NHS being overwhelmed recedes, it will be come a political decision of how many ongoing Covid deaths we will tolerate, he says.
