‘Oxford vaccine marks a step-change in roll out of jabs’

The approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the UK will allow us to alter the way we vaccinate people, a microbiologist at the University of Bath has said.

“It really now switches us to be able to take the vaccine to the people, if you will, as opposed to the Pfizer one [which] with the very low temperature requirements really meant bringing people to the well-equipped medical centres.

“This really does sort of mark a step-change in the roll out of the vaccines,” Dr Andrew Preston told BBC World News.

Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, which requires it to be kept at -70C (-94F), the Oxford vaccine can be kept at normal fridge temperatures, making it easier to store and distribute.

30 December 2020