90-Year-Old gets first Covid-19 vaccine shot [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• In the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 immunization program, the first to receive a shot was a 90-year-old former shop assistant.
• The significant event could kickstart the worldwide effort in vaccine distribution and end the pandemic, which infected millions worldwide.
• Both U.S and the European Union are expected to start administering shots in the following days or weeks. 

During the historic moment, a nurse was seen giving the 90-year-old Margaret Keenan the first injection under the U.K.’s coronavirus vaccination efforts,  starting a worldwide response in attempting to end an outbreak left a fatality of 1.5 million.

Keenan, a retired shop assistant from Northern Ireland, was first in the line at University Hospital Coventry to get the approved vaccine by British regulators the previous week.

The country was the first in the West to bring a widely tested and autonomously studied vaccine to the public. American drug company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech produced the coronavirus shot. European Union and U.S regulators may authorize the use of the same vaccine in the next days or weeks to come.

Keenan was greeted by applause by the hospital workers as she was wheeled down the passageway, saying that she felt fortunate to be the first individual to receive the vaccine for COVID-19.

The second shot was administered to a certain William Shakespeare, an 81-year-old man born from Warwickshire.

While the momentous event was good news for the whole country, authorities advised that the immunization campaign would run for several months, indicating that the measures will go on up to spring. The U.K. has listed more than 61,000 casualties in the pandemic, the highest in Europe, exceeding 1.7 million COVID-19 cases.

England’s National Health Service medical director, Stephen Powis, said that the first vaccination could be the start of the COVID-19’s end. He anticipates that everything will be back to normal in the upcoming several months.

Britain’s program could also be an essential lesson for other countries as they get ready to face the challenge of giving shots to billions of people.

Russia started administering its Sputnik V vaccine on Saturday, while China has also initiated giving its locally developed shots to its people and selling them outside the country. However, vaccines from both countries are seen in a different way since neither of them underwent the last stage trials experts believe crucial for verifying how safe and effective the serum was.

Other candidate vaccines are currently under review by officials worldwide, including a partnership between drug producer AstraZeneca and Oxford University and American biotechnology firm Moderna.

British controllers approved the 95% effective Pfizer shot on Dec. 2, and the nation has 800,000 doses, sufficient for 400,000 individuals. The first batch of injections will be given to 80 individuals admitted to the hospital, appointment –scheduled outpatients, and nursing home staff and vaccination teams.

For the general population, the vaccination program will be expanded next year, pending stocks’ availability.

Source: ABC News