Last week saw more progress with the vaccination as the
latest figures, released on Thursday showed that 74,192 COVID-19 vaccines have
now been given in Cornwall, with 78.9% of people over 80 now having received
their first jab. In Cornwall every care home where it is possible to deliver
the vaccine safely has now received it.
Nationally 5 in 6 people over that age 80 have now had the
vaccine, along with 2 in 3 people aged between 75-79. On Saturday 598,000
people received the vaccine across the UK, a new daily record. In Cornwall we
are seeing delivery of the vaccines ramping up in a similar way.
With the mass vaccination centre opening at Stithians
Showground last week, and another one opened at the Royal Cornwall Showground this
week, these figures will continue to accelerate as more supply of the vaccines
becomes available.
I hear good news stories every day from people who have had
the vaccine and continue to be impressed by the commitment shown by all
involved in the vaccine rollout. One such story, that gained national publicity
at the weekend is the impressive efforts by St Austell Healthcare, who administered
an additional 1,000 vaccines within 24 hours of being notified on an
unscheduled delivery, clearly pulling out all the stops to make sure the people
who need it most get the vaccine.
In more positive news, on Thursday, Novavax published phase
3 trial data from its UK study for its COVID-19 vaccine, showing it to be 89.3%
effective in preventing coronavirus in participants, as well as being effective
against the new UK variant.
This is the vaccine trial that I participated in, although I
don’t yet know whether I received the actual vaccine or a placebo, so I am
pleased to have contributed in a small way to this good news.
Thanks to the work of the government’s Vaccines Taskforce,
the UK has secured 60 million doses of Novavax’s vaccine to be delivered in the
second half of this year, if approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency, who will assess whether the vaccine meets robust
standards of safety, effectiveness and quality.
This is all good news, but I couldn’t finish my column
without touching on some of the negativity from the end of last week concerning
the EU and its appalling behaviour around the handling of the exporting of the
Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Make no mistake about it, one major success of
Brexit so far has been that the UK has been able to get its own vaccine rollout
up and running quickly and in doing so start vaccinating people in greater
numbers than members of the EU.
This was thrown into the spotlight last week when the EU became
angry that Britain was getting its UK-made contracted supplies from AstraZeneca
while it was yet to begin. In retaliation the EU announced it was introducing
export controls on coronavirus vaccines made inside the EU to try to protect
its supplies, including threats to put checks on the Northern Ireland border to
prevent vaccines produced in the EU from reaching the UK. The Brexit deal
ensures there are no obstacles to trade between the Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland.
Their decision united many people, including The Republic of
Ireland and Northern Ireland, in condemning their actions, and forced a quick u
turn from the EU – which was very welcome.
The UK-Ireland border was one of the most difficult problems
to overcome in the recently agreed Brexit deal, following the UK's departure
from the EU. During the negotiations the EU lectured us about the importance of
respecting the detail of the arrangement and respecting the Good Friday
Agreement; how peace in Northern Ireland was at stake. Yet the impression the
EU gave last week is that those concerns can be quickly disregarded, if the EU
feels its interests are at stake.
I was pleased that the Prime Minister rose above this and
calmly addressed this issue which forced a u turn from the EU. Whilst we all
understand the importance of addressing this pandemic at a global scale, we
cannot allow the EU to ride roughshod over contracts and agreements in place simply
to cover their bad handling of the situation. The UK has done more than any
other country to use our resources to support the global effort and I am sure
we will continue to do so, but not at the expense of our own citizens.
