Britain on Monday took another giant step in the fight against COVID-19, ramping up its immunization programme by giving the first shots in the world from the vaccine created by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Dialysis patient Brian Pinker was the first to get the new vaccine shot by the chief nurse at Oxford University Hospital. Pinker said he was so pleased and that he can “now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
Since Dec. 8, Britain’s National Health Service has been giving out shots from a vaccine made by Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech to health care workers and nursing home residents and staff. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine boosts that arsenal and is cheaper and easier to use since it does not require the super-cold storage needed by the Pfizer vaccine.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will be administered at a small number of hospitals for the first few days so authorities can…