Vaccine success: Canadian authorities hail Oxford/AstraZeneca – ‘Highly desirable’

Vaccine: Nick Ferrari says EU ‘putting citizens at risk'

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Speaking on BBC Question Time, Mark Carney, Canadian economist and banker, hailed the success of the UK’s vaccine programme. He spoke after Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced vaccine shortages will hit the UK – after the need to conduct rigorous safety checks on new doses.

Mr Carney said: “Let me say, from a country that doesn’t have any vaccine or vaccine production and is way behind – first, I’ll commend the UK for what they’ve done.

“First, in terms of the efficacy of the vaccine, it’s clear, at least to the Canadian health authorities, that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is highly desirable and we’d love to have some, and would love to have some injected into arms.”

Health Canada confirmed on Thursday that the benefits of the vaccine “continue to outweigh the risks.”

Several European countries announced they were resuming the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as the European Medicines Agency also concluded the vaccine was “safe and effective.”

Earlier this week, more than 20 countries stopped vaccinations after reports of some patients developing clotting disorders shortly after receiving the Oxford vaccine.

Speaking on the suspension, Mr Carney said it was a “very disturbing development.”

The decision to reinstate the use of the Oxford came as a relief to many health experts who expressed concern over the already long delays in Europe’s vaccination programme.

Mr Carney added in light of the vaccine suspension, many countries would need to develop a vaccine capacity.

He said that countries are “going to have to build up a vaccine capacity to deal with the potential of an endemic pandemic which of course is horrifically bad and so it needs to be diffused as quickly as possible.”

Matt Hancock announced on Wednesday that 1.7 million doses had been delayed in the past week because of the need to “retest its stability.”

He added: “The pace of rollout has always been determined by the availability of supply.

“The process of manufacturing vaccines is complicated and subject to unpredictability.

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“We make public commitments to the goals we can reach, according to our best estimates of future supply. That supply goes up and down.”

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