Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 23 December 2020
No, I cannot give a planning date for that. I understand why Pauline McNeill asked that question, and I would like to be able to give that date but, as with everything else, it depends on vaccine approval and the roll-out and delivery of the vaccines. It should be remembered that the manufacturers of the vaccines will deliver and supply to the whole world. Although the UK, on behalf of all four nations, has forward purchased a significant volume of vaccines—more than is needed—delivery and production schedules are inevitably important factors.
We will not determine which vaccine will be used for which cohorts of individuals; rather, we will follow the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and whatever caveats the MHRA may put around its authorisation to use vaccines. As we know, with the Pfizer vaccine, there is a specific caveat in relation to pregnant women, and there is now an additional requirement for a 15-minute sit-down after a person has been vaccinated to ensure that everything is okay before they leave and go about their business. We get that. I expect that we will have comparable caveats around MHRA approval and JCVI advice for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine when it comes forward and for the Moderna vaccine, which we expect to be the third vaccine coming through. However, we must wait for those and then apply those caveats.