England to require vaccination for all health service workers
LONDON, United Kingdom — All frontline workers in the National Health Service (NHS) in England will need to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 from April 1 or lose their jobs, Health Minister Sajid Javid said on Tuesday.
"Having considered the... advice of my officials and NHS leaders including the chief executive of the NHS, I have concluded that all those working in the NHS and social care will have to be vaccinated," he told parliament.
The government had already announced that all care home workers will need to have had both jabs from November 11, but was waiting on the findings of a consultation before extending it to all NHS frontline staff.
Among 34,000 responses, "the scales clearly tip to one side," Javid said.
"The weight of the data shows our vaccinations have kept people safe and they have saved lives and that this is especially true for vulnerable people in health and care settings."
The move comes at a time when the publicly-funded health service is already facing a huge waiting list due to a dramatic reduction in appointments during the pandemic.
The NHS, which is funded from general taxation and National Insurance contributions, is Europe's biggest employer and one of the biggest in the world, with some 1.3 million staff.
Under pressure
Around 90 percent of NHS staff have received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, although the figure is closer to 80 percent in some areas, said Javid.
This means there are up to 100,000 NHS workers in England who are unvaccinated, raising fears about how the service will cope if they lose their jobs.
"The NHS is under the most intense pressure this winter already, we know the waiting lists are at close to 6 million," said Labour's health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth.
"There will be anxiety... that a policy, however laudable in principle, could exacerbate some of these chronic understaffing problems.
"We simply cannot afford to lose thousands of NHS staff overnight," he added.
Nursing union officer Stuart Tuckwood meanwhile warned that "adopting this compulsory approach could actually demoralise staff, could force them to leave the health service at a time when we're very, very much struggling with staffing numbers."
"The NHS is really constantly on a knife edge at the moment in terms of staffing levels," he told AFP.
"It really doesn't take much to push the health service into crisis at the moment."
Hospital deaths
The British government has been repeatedly criticised for its response to the coronavirus pandemic since the outbreak hit in early 2020.
So far, nearly 142,000 people have died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid.
But ministers have so far resisted calls to impose general vaccine requirements in enclosed public spaces, and although daily case levels have fallen over recent days, the seven-day average is still nearly 37,500.
A freedom of information request by the Daily Telegraph revealed that 11,688 people caught Covid and died after being admitted to NHS hospitals in England for other ailments, the newspaper reported on Monday.
Health policy is controlled by the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Scotland and Wales have already indicated they have no plans to make jabs compulsory for healthcare workers. Northern Ireland is consulting on the issue.
Javid said health workers carry "a unique responsibility" due to being in close contact "with some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
"A job in health or care is like no other, it cannot be business as usual when it comes to vaccination," he said.
Pharma giants Sanofi and GSK said on July 29, 2020, that they have agreed to supply Britain with up to 60 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement covers a vaccine candidate developed by France's Sanofi in partnership with the UK's GSK and is subject to a "final contract."
This thread collects some of the major developments in the search for a vaccine to ease the new coronavirus pandemic. (Main photo by AFP/Joel Saget)
As negotiations towards a new pandemic treaty pick up pace, observers warn of watered-down efforts to ensure equitable access to the medical products needed to battle future Covid-like threats.
Shaken by the pandemic, the World Health Organization's 194 member states are negotiating an international accord aimed at ensuring countries are better equipped to deal with the next catastrophe, or even prevent it altogether.
The process is still in the early stages, with the aim of reaching an agreement by May 2024.
But critics warn that revisions being made to the preliminary negotiating text are weakening the language -- notably in a key area aimed at preventing the rampant inequity seen in access to vaccines and other medical products during the Covid pandemic.
"I think it is a real step backwards," Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP. — AFP
Africa's first mRNA vaccine hub is ceremonially launched on Thursday to acclaim from the UN's global health chief, who hailed it as a historic shift to help poor countries gain access to life-saving jabs.
The facility was set up in the South African city of Cape Town in 2021 on the back of the success of revolutionary anti-Covid vaccines introduced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
"This precious project... will bring a paradigm shift in addressing the serious problem we faced, the equity problem, during the pandemic, so (that) it's not repeated again," World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells a media briefing to mark the inauguration. — AFP
China has approved its first locally developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19, its manufacturer said Wednesday, months after the relaxation of strict Covid-zero regulations sparked a surge in cases.
The vaccine, developed by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, has been approved for "emergency use" by Beijing's health regulator, the company said in a statement.
It showed high efficacy in a trial in which it was used as a booster shot for people who have been given other types of vaccines, the company added, without offering further details. — AFP
COVID-19 vaccine maker Novavax raises doubts about its ability to continue its business, announcing plans to cut spending after struggles in rolling out its coronavirus jab.
Shares of Novavax plummeted 25 percent in extended trading, after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates.
While the firm should have enough money to fund operations, the situation is "subject to significant uncertainty," it says in a statement. — AFP
The protection against Covid-19 from being previously infected lasts at least as long as that offered by vaccination, one of the largest studies conducted on the subject says.
Ten months after getting Covid, people still had an 88% lower risk of reinfection, hospitalisation and death, according to the study published in the Lancet journal.
That makes this natural immunity "at least as durable, if not more so" than two doses of Pfizer or Moderna's vaccines, the study says.
The authors nevertheless emphasized that their findings should not discourage vaccination, which remains the safest way to get immunity. — AFP
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