The first patient in the UK received the Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccine.
Brian William Pinker, 82, was shot Monday morning at Oxford Churchill Hospital.
“I am very happy to receive the Covid vaccine today and I am very proud that it was the one that was invented in Oxford,” he said.
“The vaccine means everything, for me it is the only way to return to normal life. This virus is terrible, right? ”
Pinker said he knew for the first time Saturday that he would be vaccinated and was told he would be the first patient. “It took me a while to become a star,” he said.
The deployment of the AstraZeneca vaccine began today in the UK and the country’s health secretary described it as a “crucial moment” as Covid-19 cases continue to rise in some parts of the country.
Chief Nurse Sam Foster, who administered the vaccine, said: “It was a real privilege to be able to administer Oxford’s first vaccine at Churchill Hospital here in Oxford, a few hundred meters from where it was developed. “.
Pinker is a retired maintenance manager who has been on dialysis for kidney disease in the hospital. Others should also be vaccinated because “it’s not a problem,” he said.
“Today’s nurses, doctors and staff have been brilliant and I can now look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year.”
The NHS is the first health service in the world to deploy the AstraZeneca vaccine and is the only approved one that can be stored at refrigerator temperature. The first vaccines will be delivered in a small number of hospitals during the first days for surveillance purposes, as is usual practice, before most supplies are sent to more services run by GPs at the end of the week. , as reported by the NHS England in a statement.