U.K. rolls out AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine; 82-year-old kidney patient gets first shot

86
SHARE
AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

The United Kingdom is the first country to inoculate people with the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.

Brian William Pinker, 82, became the first person to receive the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.

“I’m so pleased to be getting the [Covid-19] vaccine today,” Pinker said after being administered with the shot. Pinker was considered a vulnerable person due to his age. He has also been receiving dialysis.

“The vaccine means everything to me, to my mind it is the only way to get back to normal life,” Pinker added.

U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the milestone as a “triumph of British science” in the backdrop of a seemingly never-ending series of challenges posed by the global pandemic.

He said, “The very positive news this morning of the Oxford vaccine starting to be rolled out – that’s a triumph of British science that we’ve managed to get to where we are.”

“It’s a real pivotal moment with the arrival, actually in the hospitals of the UK, of the Oxford vaccine,” Hancock added.

Regulators approved the vaccine a day before New Year’s Eve. Vaccine doses will be distributed at “a small number of hospitals for the first few days for surveillance purposes,” according to the National Health Service (NHS).

Thousands of present and even former NHS employees are currently undergoing training as vaccinators who will lead the U.K. in its “biggest immunization program in history.”