COVID-19: Can you choose a specific vaccine?

The struggle for vaccine supplies is a global dispute, with geopolitical rather than health prejudices. But even so, the people are fighting a race against time. The voices of the most developed countries, members of the G7, such as France and the United Kingdom, call for a more equitable distribution across the world, proposed as a public health solution, in the face of the coronavirus pandemic which strikes without social discrimination in the classes , ethnicities, socio-economic conditions. What is certain is that Getting vaccinated is the only tool against COVID-19, but, as a result, it’s a precious commodity that more than 7.5 billion people lack.

The choice is complicated by the fact that there is precisely no choice. There is no private option in Britain for this. Vaccines are purchased, distributed and deployed by the publicly funded National Health Service, which serves everyone, rich and poor, for free at the point of service, without you having to skip the line or choose which one to apply. The official policy of the National Health Service (NHS) is to accept what is offered or, as its spokesperson put it: “It will be Pfizer or Oxford in one place depending on deliveries. People can choose their favorite site, but not their vaccine “. The NHS is the health service that provides free universal coverage to 59 million people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To doctor and former Labor MP Paul Williams, some patients declined Pfizer appointments. In addition, he said he believed the preference had been generated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s intimidating endorsement “from our brilliant British scientists”.. Alternatively, Oxford is one of the best universities in the world and the name alone conjures up a mixture of emotions for the British, such as pride, envy, desire and hate.

Andrew Pollard, one of the scientists who led the Oxford vaccination team, said: “Personally, I would like to have the vaccine offered, because the most important thing with vaccination is to have the dose in your arm. . ” Pollard cautioned against fixing in specific numbers in early clinical trials. “The problem with the tests, unless you run them face to face, you don’t really know if a number of 95% on the test and 62% on the other test mean the same thing.“.

For Sarah Gilbert, co-author of the Oxford vaccine, “There were days when I just didn’t want to read the papers because it was more of an attack on AstraZeneca, and I really didn’t understand why.” He said the “direct real-world results” comparing Pfizer and Oxford will soon arrive in Britain. “Then we’ll see what it looks like.” Of all the vaccines developed in the West, The entry of Oxford-AstraZeneca was the most controversial. A dosage error in clinical trials has caused confusion over efficacy. Early trials also did not include enough people over 65 to show that the vaccine protects older people, prompting several European countries to restrict use in this age group, while other countries have approved it or are waiting for more data..

Gareth Greenslade, anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, who received the Pfizer vaccine at the hospital where he works, while his wife, a nurse, received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at a vaccination center in Bristol, said the vaccine is “fairly traditional,” made from a weakened chimpanzee cold virus that carries a piece of DNA to mimic the viral spike protein. “So from the standpoint of keeping you from dying, Oxford-AstraZeneca is doing it,” said Greenslade. But he liked to imagine himself with Pfizer’s dose, based on new mRNA biotechnology: “It’s such a fancy idea to teach cells to make a harmless protein, and then it all goes away, but the immune system is. there, like a spring coil “.

Supply is difficult and will continue to be so. A quarter of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine and coronavirus cases have dropped dramatically. Yet Britain has the highest death toll per capita in Europe during the pandemic. The health system is collapsing in the face of constant demand. So much so that patients requiring routine surgeries were placed on one-year waiting lists.

University of Edinburgh public health professor Linda Bauld noted that “people allowed to choose their favorite vaccine have come up against the UK model of nationalized healthcare“. A dozen countries in Europe are also avoiding the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccination for people over 65, noting that early trials did not include enough volunteers in this age group to demonstrate its effectiveness.

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