Vaccinating everyone in UK against Covid-19 is 'not going to happen'

Coronavirus inoculation will be reserved for high-risk groups

In this handout photo released by the University of Oxford samples from coronavirus vaccine trials are handled inside the Oxford Vaccine Group laboratory in Oxford, England Thursday June 25, 2020. Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot. In research published Monday July 20, 2020 in the journal Lancet, scientists said that they found their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people aged 18 to 55. (John Cairns, University of Oxford via AP)
Powered by automated translation

Fewer than half of the UK population could be vaccinated against coronavirus, the head of Britain’s vaccine task force said on Monday.

Kate Bingham said vaccinating everyone against Covid-19 was “not going to happen”, with the inoculation reserved for high-risk groups.

Ms Bingham said giving the vaccine to healthy people could cause "some freak harm".

"There's going to be no vaccination of people under 18," she told the Financial Times:

“It's an adult-only vaccine, for people over 50, focusing on health workers and care-home workers and the vulnerable.

"People keep talking about time to vaccinate the whole population but that is misguided."

Ms Bingham's comments follow those of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who on Sunday warned he expected the next few months of the pandemic to be bumpy, but that things would look radically different in the spring.

Mr Johnson admitted "people are furious and they're furious with me", before a crucial speech at the Tory party conference on Tuesday where he will address jittery MPs.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak was due to speak at the conference on Monday.

The arrival of the vaccine was being hailed by Mr Johnson as the event that could wipe out the disease.

Officials are hoping to give the vaccine to about 30 million of the UK’s population of 67 million.

The UK has ordered 90 million doses from various sources, but the country may not end up with this amount because vaccines must pass clinical trials.

Ms Bingham said giving the jab to healthy people, who are much less likely to have severe outcomes from the coronavirus, “could cause them some freak harm”.

Last month, the UK government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said that care-home residents would be at the front of the queue for any vaccine that became available.

They and their carers would be the first inoculated, followed by those aged 80 and over, those aged 75 and older, and other adults over the age of 50.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Sunday said he supported prioritising the vaccine for the most vulnerable.

"We've got to get the vaccine to the people who are most likely to be badly affected by coronavirus first," Mr Hancock said.

"But it is also important because people can know in advance that there is a prioritisation and we will reach people when it is clinically right to do that.

"And then there's a huge logistical operation that we're planning, led by the NHS with the support of the armed services to make sure we have the logistics in place to get this rolled out as fast as it is feasibly possible."

Barrage of bad news for Boris 

Meanwhile, authorities revealed nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases went unreported in the UK.

The missing cases contributed to a record 22,961 new cases on Sunday.

Public Health England said an "IT failure" meant that almost 16,000 test results between September 25 and October 2 were left out of daily figures.

It is understood the fiasco was due to an Excel spreadsheet containing lab results reaching its maximum file size.

Mr Johnson said the cases data had been "truncated" and "lost", and he could not give an answer when asked how many close contacts of positive cases were not traced as a result.

"I can't give you those figures," he said.

"What I can say is all those people are obviously being contacted and the key thing is that everybody, whether in this group or generally, should self-isolate.

"That's the way to make it work."

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said the glitch was "found and fixed".

"I'm sure that the changes are brought in straight away to make sure this sort of problem doesn't happen again," Ms Coffey told Sky News.

"I'm sure that PHE will not be allowing that issue to happen again.”

Mr Johnson on Sunday accepted that the public was angry with his handling of the pandemic.

After months of criticism and amid a slide in the polls, he said the country still faced a “very tough winter” ahead.

“I know people are furious and they’re furious with me," Mr Johnson told the BBC.

“It’s going to be bumpy through to Christmas. It may even be bumpy beyond.”