Dr Chandra Kanneganti, GP,BIDA Chair,Conservative Cllr,Dy Lord Mayor & Planning Committee Chair Stoke-on-Trent City Council, North Staffs LMC Secretary, BMA GPC Policy led CSD, shares his experience with Primepost.in  after he administered Pfizer vaccine. Here are a few comments for our readers.
Hyderabad: UK became the first country to approve Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNtech. The UK government accepted the recommendation from Independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNtech’s Covid-19 vaccine for use which started to roll out from December 7. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the emergency use of the vaccine in fight against Covid pandemic makes a historic moment.
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Upto thursday, nealry 1,30,000 were vaccinated after it started vaccinating from Dec 7th. Initilally two persons got reactions after vaccine was administered because they have severe allergic reactions earlier. Immediatley MHRA alerted not to give doses to people who are allergic to medicines. After first dose is given, it will take four days to show progress in immunity and second dose will be given after few days gap and hope fully immunity will be developed after second one, but now it is too early to say how much time it will take for improving immunity and developing anti bodies.
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Main advantage with Pfizer vaccine is, it can be stored at a temperature of 2 to 5degrees also but only for 3 days. Infrastructure of UK Government hospitals is helping a lot in storage conditions. For example from plane, the vaccine is supplied to Hospital in a load container which is filled with dry ice. From the hospital it is moved to site location where the vaccine will be administered. And people above 80 are given first priority  and their data is collected and messages were sent to them along with date and time of vaccination. This  system is making it easy for us to administer vaccine at proper level. No complaints until now in these 10 days except little reddishness  at the site of injection.
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If any patient with Covid-19 positive, vaccination will be given only after gap of four weeks. UK government is taking all measures to control the pandemic. For Christmas celebrtaions, Government has allowed only three households to join and it may further reduce to two households depending upon the situation. This is all because it is too early to say whether this vaccine will prevent spike or not.
On vaccines, UK has 7 contracts on hand now with Pfizer 7 million, Oxford University and Astrazeneca 10 crores, and with Moderna 7 million, Novacox, local vaccine 4 cores so government is in forward move with these contracts done earlier. UK government will pay general practitioners 26 pounds for two doses to a patient and it is free for all as healthcare is free in UK for all people irrespective of their visa. New mutation was found last week in England but these new ones can be controlled by the vaccine right now available. It is not deadly as of now.
Covid in Asian countries has more complications. It is our duty to save elders’ lives. “It is pity to see there is no plan in Telugu states. I was more worried when I observed people in Hyderabad without masks and proper guidelines. No government testing was seen. Governments in Telugu states should come forward with free testing and vaccination. There are chances of increase in cases in India due to Christmas, New year celebrations and festivals. Added to this, cold temperatures and rainfalls will increase further positive cases. Herd immunity can’t be known right now and it is too early to say that 20% vaccination will lead to herd immunity. It is better to follow social distancing, wearing masks, and using sanitizer until we have completed  two doses of vaccination.
