UK rushes Covid Pirola jab program in panicked bid to stop huge wave of infection
The UK rolled out its winter push for coronavirus and flu vaccines in September, a month early, as the country battles a rise of cases driven by the Pirola variant.
The UK pushed forward new Covid and flu vaccines as fears grow about the new Pirola variant of the virus.
Britain has seen coronavirus infection rates rise with at least 30 mutations of Pirola driving the spike.
As of September 18, the Covid strain has now been confirmed in 54 positive Covid-19 cases, which may be higher as testing is far lower than it was even a year ago.
So as the winter months approach, UK officials launched their annual flu and Covid vaccine roll outs a month early.
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The program sees 30 million Britons offered a flu vaccine and 25 million invited to get a Covid jab, but it launched in September, rather than in October.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from the University of Reading, told MailOnline: “The earlier that expected rollout of flu and Covid vaccination this year has inevitably increased some people's anxiety surrounding the risk from both viruses this winter.
“The decision to do so, like the choices on who to give the vaccines to, is likely to have been made in response to many different pieces of data and modeling.
“In science, it's crucial that people are transparent with data, secrecy is not acceptable, but here we're also dealing with politics which isn't always so open.”
Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, also told the outlet the change to the start date “emphasized inconsistency in the Government's approach to vaccination and Covid in general”.
He told MailOnline: “This flip-flopping doesn't inspire confidence in the government's handling of Covid or flu and creates mistrust at a time when there should be clear and consistent messaging.”
The UKHSA Dashboard holds that there have been 14,856 cases this week, a rise of 3,343 over seven days.
They also reported 225 weekly deaths with Covid-19 on the death certificate, a rise of 80 over the week.
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Meanwhile, the US has released new Covid vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which are formulated to target newer variants of the virus.
In an interview with Fox News Digital however, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida's surgeon general, expressed his reservations regarding the updated Covid-19 vaccine.
"It's just a really terrible idea," Ladapo said. "And it's remarkable and really spellbinding that [the CDC] would make that kind of recommendation in the absence of evidence."
Coronavirus hospitalizations in the US recently surpassed 20,000 for the first time since mid-March.
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