COVID-19 vaccine still not received by many frontline workers in UK, doctors 'alarmed'

The frontline doctors in the UK have been reportedly denied the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech resulting in NHS (National Health Service) workers to be alarmed and “scrabbling” to get immunisations. As per the Guardian report, a fresh survey has revealed that nearly two-thirds of the medical professionals who responded to the pandemic in the nation have still not received their inoculations and half of them believe that delivery of vaccines to the NHS frontline workers has been “ad hoc”. Moreover, a third of them are clueless about when they will be offered the COVID-19 vaccine. 

The survey through UK’s state-funded health service was conducted by EveryDoctor constituting of 1,316 doctors. It also came at the time when the British health regulator is preparing to approve Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. This has also led the NHS doctors to believe that the availability of the second vaccine could drastically increase the immunisation for frontline workers in the UK as well as the citizens.

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Difference between Oxford and Pfizer’s vaccine

The significant difference between Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine and the one developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca is that the latter can be stored and transported at normal temperature while the former needs to be frozen at -75C. Therefore the Oxford’s doses are easier to distribute including the care homes across the nation. 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government was also the first in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine and rolled out its doses for the citizens. As per reports, the government has already ordered nearly 100 million doses but 40 million of them will reach the nation before the end of March. To deliver the immunisations, the administration has also allotted 10,000 people to safely deliver the vaccine in specific locations turned into inoculation sites in the country.

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Despite the measures taken by the government, the media outlet cited the messages exchanged among NHS bosses and the staff with the seniors acknowledging their ‘acute concern’ over the sense of unprotected to the highly-infectious disease. As per the media outlet, in an email sent to NHS colleagues in Boxing Day, the chief executive of Cardiff and Vale University health board in Wales, Len Richards said, “I understand that there is a great deal of frustration among colleagues with regards to access to the coronavirus vaccine. I can fully understand and appreciate that frustration.”

The media outlet quoted one consultant at Imperial College Healthcare Trust in London said: “Some of us have received vaccines from overflow at GP surgeries, which has involved word of mouth and last minute scrabbling about.”

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