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Matt Hancock to give No10 Covid press conference at 5pm to celebrate 25million jab

Mirror logo Mirror 17/03/2021 14:48:35 Dan Bloom

Matt Hancock will give a coronavirus press conference at 5pm today to celebrate the government's vaccine rollout.

The Health Secretary will front the first No10 briefing in more than a week, as the number of UK first doses is set to hit 25million.

It is a major achievement for the vaccine programme - with over-50s in England including Boris Johnson invited for a jab from today - after several European countries descended into chaos and blame over their rollouts.

But it comes after Brussels chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the heat on a row with the UK by threatening to slam the brakes on vaccine exports.

The European Commission president said "all options are on the table" as far as export controls on Covid-19 vaccines, in a bid to safeguard jabs for the bloc's own citizens facing a third wave of the pandemic.

And she invited the UK to "show reciprocity" by ensuring promised doses of the AstraZeneca jab are delivered to the bloc.

a man in a suit standing in front of a store: The European Commission president said © REUTERSThe European Commission president said

Meanwhile Mr Hancock could face difficult questions after his department came under brutal attack from Boris Johnson's former top aide. Dominic Cummings took aim at the "smoking ruin" Department of Health today in his first comments since quitting four months ago.

And appearing to back an inquiry, he said Parliament should have an "urgent, very very hard look into what went wrong and why".

It is a direct attack on Mr Hancock, who just weeks ago claimed there was not a shortage of PPE in the first wave of the pandemic.

Mr Cummings told MPs on the Science and Technology Committee: "I and others said repeatedly before 2020 this system is an expensive disaster zone and when it hits a crisis it will completely fall over. That system hit a crisis, and it completely fell over."

He added the Department of Health "had an absolute disaster in terms of buying - how it buys, procures, how it deals with science and technology. It's why we had to take the vaccines process out of the Department of Health".

Mr Cummings said Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance suggested setting up a separate task force to procure vaccines, which was overseen by Tory ally Kate Bingham.


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"To do that we had to take it out of the Department of Health", he said, and "strip away all the normal nonsense".

In a brutal attack on Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Mr Cummings added: "In Spring 2020 you had a situation where the Department for Health was just a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE and all of that."

Yet despite a furious row about contracts handed to Tory cronies, Mr Cummings claimed there should have been fewer checks and balances - not more.

He cited the Manhattan Project, behind the first nuclear bomb, in which US General Leslie Groves "ran around the country handing out something like 2% of US GDP, often with only a handshake".

It comes after Matt Hancock last night urged Brits to keep getting the "safe" Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine which is "saving lives".

The Health Secretary spoke out after a string of European countries suspended the rollout of the jab over concerns about alleged side-effects.

He told Brits "if you get the call, get the jab", adding: "The vaccine keeps you safe and helps protect you, it helps protect those around you, your loved ones, and it will help us to all get out of this pandemic."

Denmark, France and Germany are among countries that have paused the jab's progress in their population.

Yet the European Medicines Agency today said there is "no indication" the vaccine is causing blood clots.

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has also said evidence "does not suggest" the jab causes clots.

Emer Cooke, European Medicines Agency (EMA) executive director, told a press conference: "They have not come up in the clinical trials and they are not listed as known side events with this vaccine.

"In clinical trials, both vaccinated people and people who received the placebo have shown some very small number of blood clot developments.

"The number of thromboembolic events overall in vaccinated people seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population."

She added the benefits of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab outweighed the risks.

Mr Hancock tonight told journalists: "The Oxford/AstraZeneca jab is safe. We know that over 10million people have had it in this country.

"That's what the British regulator says but also the World Health Organisation and even the European regulator.

"Now, we keep the effects of these vaccines under review all the time and we know the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is saving lives in the UK right now.

"So if you get the call, get the jab."

mercredi 17 mars 2021 16:48:35 Categories: Mirror

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