As the coronavirus or COVID-19 cases around the world are rising and the number of cases is currently over 48 million worldwide, scientists have been working at war-like speed to find a cure for the disease. Now, Sir Simon Stevens, the CEO of the NHS has stated that the two coronavirus vaccines can be ready by Christmas.
"Our job is just to make sure that we are ready and waiting and able to fire the starting gun. How certain are we that we would be able to get going with at least some coronavirus vaccination before Christmas if it were available? I would answer ten out of ten," he said as reported by the Mirror.
COVID-19 Vaccine in UK
The comments of Stevens come as the vaccine chief gave a confirmation that the UK will have stockpiled 14 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines by the end of the year. The vaccines are currently getting manufactured with the NHS set to start administering them soon as they are approved for use, as per Kate Bingham, the UK Vaccine Taskforce chair.
The 14 million doses are split across two vaccines. Four million doses are from the leading vaccine candidate of the UK, developed by the University of Oxford while the remaining 10 million doses are developed by Pfizer in the US.
Bingham, however, gave a warning that an issue may arise regarding the finding of enough staff for administering the jabs. Andrew Pollard, the chief trial investigator at the University of Oxford thinks that there is a 'small chance' the vaccine can be ready by Christmas."I'm optimistic that we could reach that point before the end of this year," Mr Pollard said about presenting the trial results this year, as reported by the Mirror.
The deadly virus outbreak has created a major stir around the world in recent times claiming the lives of over 1.22 million people globally in more than 170 countries. It will be interesting to see when the world gets access to an effective vaccine.
