“More than enough” Covid vaccines available to vaccinate all under-30s, Health Secretary says

“More than enough” Covid vaccines available to vaccinate all under-30s, Health Secretary says

The UK has “more than enough” supply of the Moderna and Pfizer Covid vaccines to vaccinate all adults aged under 30 years old against Covid-19, the Health Secretary has said in an interview today.

Matt Hancock told BBC Breakfast that the UK is “on track” to vaccinate all adults by 31 July, and encouraged everyone to take up the offer of a first vaccine when they are called to do so.

Although the UK drugs regulator has said that people aged 18 to 29 should be offered a different vaccine because of the evidence linking the AstraZeneca jabs to blood clots, Hancock said the jab is safe and urged those who have received one dose to also take off the offer of receiving their second.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said there is no proof that the vaccine caused the clots, while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have said that the benefits of receiving the jab far outweigh the risk of blood clots.

Hancock said during the interview: “The safety system that we have around this vaccine is so sensitive that it can pick up events that are four in a million – the chance of developing a rare brain blood clot – I’m told this is about the equivalent risk of taking a long-haul flight.”

He also said that there is “no evidence” of rare blood clots after receiving the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

There are still 8.5 million adults aged under 30 who are yet to be vaccinated in the UK to have two doses.