Vaccines: How Jabs Brought New Hope In Covid Battle

It has been a year since the UK became the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid and since then the world has embarked on a battle against the virus.

- Sarah Marsh

Here is a history of the vaccination development:

November 2020

At this time, there are a number of Covid vaccine candidates being tested in large phase three clinical trials. Among the jabs being considered is one developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. At the end of the month, analysis indicates its promise – with data showing it to be 70.4% effective when combining data from two dosing regimens. Professor Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, says the news takes the world, “another step closer to the time when we can use vaccines to bring an end to the devastation caused by Sars-CoV-2 ”.

Pfizer/BioNTech also reveals the effectiveness of their jab. The efficacy portion of their Covid-19 vaccine trial has been completed, showing the vaccine to prevent 95% of cases of the disease.

December 2020

The UK becomes the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid, with the first jab approved being from Pfizer/ BioNTech. It is authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) and initially given to the most at risk. Among the first people in the world to receive a jab is Margaret Keenan, 90, who is inoculated at 6.31am on 8 December in Coventry, marking the start of a historic mass vaccination programme.