Vaccination campaign starts in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom launched a mass vaccination campaign against Covid on Tuesday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been widely criticised for his handling of the pandemic, claims to be a pioneer in the response to the crisis.  

The first doses will be administered from December 8 in England, but also in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 40 million doses of the vaccine, developed by the American laboratory Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, have been ordered. These vaccines should protect 20 million people, with two injections three weeks apart.  

In a statement, the government designated the first day of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, Tuesday 8 November, as "V-Day", referring to "D-Day", the day the Allies landed in Normandy during the Second World War.   

The UK becomes the first country in the world to authorise the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTec. Boris Johnson hopes to put his chaotic handling of the Covid-19 pandemic behind him, at a time when his country is the most affected in Europe, with over 61,000 deaths and a population of over 66 million. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked health officials and scientists for making the start of vaccination against covid-19 possible, after a 90-year-old woman became the first person in the UK and the world to receive the vaccine amidst media excitement at Coventry University Hospital in central England.  

Boris Johnson said the vaccination campaign will "gradually make a big difference" in the fight against the virus, but warned that it will take "weeks, months", and called on the British "not to relax" their efforts.  

The head of government, who was hospitalised in April after catching the virus, also thanked those who have complied with the restrictive measures to control the disease and concluded his tweet by saying: "we are going to fight this together".  

"Gradually it will make a big difference," he said, "but we're not there yet". We haven't beaten the virus yet," he said during a visit to the hospital. "It's amazing to see the vaccine, but we can't afford to relax our efforts.  

For his part, the leader of the Labour opposition, Keir Starmer, wrote on Twitter that this Tuesday is a "transcendental day" and stressed that "there is light at the end of the tunnel".  

Meanwhile, in the rest of Europe, on Monday the governments approved a modification of the common rules on VAT so that the sale of vaccines and covid-19 tests can be exempted from the payment of this tax until 31 December 2022, while they are preparing containment measures in view of the arrival of the Christmas celebrations.