Health Secretary celebrates success and identifies lessons of Covid-19 vaccination programme six months on

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock will celebrate the success of the largest vaccination programme in British history in a speech today (Wednesday 2 June).

Speaking in Oxford - the beating heart of scientific brilliance in fighting COVID-19 and home to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine - the Health Secretary will praise the ‘extraordinary vaccine heroes’ who have worked tirelessly to administer more than 65 million total vaccines across the UK. It is expected that three quarters of adults in the UK will receive their first dose by today (Wednesday).

He will reflect on crucial decisions that were made early in the vaccination programme and how the UK drew on the best talent from across the civil service, NHS, armed forces and private sector to build the ‘finest team’ and the ‘single greatest asset’ to turn the tide on the pandemic.

The speech will praise the phenomenal dedication of the public to get their jabs, with data published by YouGov showing the UK continues to top the list of nations where people are willing to have a COVID-19 vaccine or have already been vaccinated. ONS data published on 6 May found that more than 9 in 10 (93%) adults reported positive sentiment towards the vaccine.

The speech - taking place at the Jenner Institute in Oxford at 2.25pm ahead of the UK-hosted G7 Health Ministers’ Meetings this week - will focus on four major lessons learned during the pandemic including start early; draw on your strengths; take and manage risks and back the team.

Start early

The Health Secretary is expected to say:

“Even before the first COVID-19 case arrived in the UK we’d started the work on how to develop, procure and roll out the vaccines that would ultimately make us safe.

“I was told a vaccine had never been developed against any human coronavirus. We dared to believe … and we started early. We put out a call for research in February. By March, we were supporting six different projects, including the Oxford vaccine, alongside the vital work on treatments - including the RECOVERY trial, which led to the discovery of dexamethasone, the first proven treatment to reduce coronavirus mortality. These two projects, together, have already saved over a million lives.”

Draw on your strengths

The Health Secretary is expected to say:

“First, we have a universal healthcare system with a trusted brand, our NHS. The NHS has performed with distinction throughout this pandemic, and it has deserved every plaudit that has come its way.

“Next, we massively benefited from our scientific strength. Over centuries, we have built one of the greatest scientific capabilities in the world, and we must always support it.

“One of our greatest strengths is the strength of our Union. We negotiated and bought vaccines for the whole country, we allocated them according to need and we worked with the NHS, devolved administrations, and local councils everywhere and we called upon the logistical heft of the British Armed Forces to help get them in arms.”

Take and manage risks

The Health Secretary is expected to say:

“The biggest risk would have been the failure to find a vaccine at all. So we explicitly embraced risk early on. So we backed lots of horses and invested at risk.

“And instead of sitting back and waiting to see which vaccines came off, we were tenacious in helping them to get over the line, drawing on the abundant industry experience in our team.

“We helped to bring together Oxford and AstraZeneca and bring them to the table, a partnership which has been a lifeline, not just here, but in the developing world. We offered funding for the early manufacture of the vaccines, before we knew whether they would work and we backed manufacturing plants too. Like funding the Valneva facility in Livingston and sending a team to help the Halix plant in the Netherlands to scale up.”

Back the team

The Health Secretary is expected to say:

“We had to move fast, embrace change and learn quickly from our mistakes and bring the best people to the table - the finest team that I’ve ever been part of.

“A perfect example of this is our Vaccine Taskforce. Last April, we worked to pull together a team with all the different disciplines that we needed, in one place, with one mission. And this diverse team, diverse in background and perspectives, helped us to create one of the most diverse vaccine portfolios in the world.

“The team who worked on our vaccination programme was the single greatest asset that we had in this crisis.”

Notes to editors

• The speech is expected to be live streamed on DHSC’s Twitter channel (@DHSCgovuk) from 2.25pm on Wednesday 2 June.
• Further detail on the Q&A will be shared with the media shortly.
• The 2021 G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting will be held in-person in Oxford on 3-4 June and will bring together health leaders from the world’s leading democracies to agree life-saving action in critical areas of global health.
• They will convene at Oxford University – a global centre of clinical, scientific and academic excellence – which has been at the heart of the global fight against COVID-19, with world-leading clinical trials and its not-for-profit partnership with AstraZeneca on COVID-19 vaccines already saving thousands of lives across the globe.

Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines

• The extra doses under discussion are in addition to the 100 million already secured for the UK.
• The doses will be tailored to target the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa.
• As part of the discussions, the UK has committed to funding the clinical trials for the new adapted vaccine.

UK investment in vaccine research and development

• The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine - developed by teams at the Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group at Oxford University, in partnership with AstraZeneca – has been fundamental in our fight against the virus.
• Produced on a not-for-profit basis for the period of the pandemic, the vaccine – which can be stored at fridge temperature and is easy to transport and distribute - is having a significant impact, not just here in the UK, but across the world.
• Almost 1.5 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered across the world. Of these, more than 450 million of them have been the Oxford/AZ vaccine. In total, this vaccine has now been delivered in 160 countries, two thirds of this to low and middle-income countries, including 170 million doses in India. In addition, of the 67 million doses deployed through COVAX, 98% of them have been the Oxford/AZ vaccine.
• The potential of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was discovered early in the pandemic, and the UK Government provided significant funding to enable the quick development of this vaccine.
• To date the UK Government has announced over £88 million in funding to develop the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine. This includes £2.6 million through NIHR and UKRI for research of the vaccine, £20 million for clinical trials and £65.5 million for early manufacturing of the vaccine. Government also invested £8.75 million to set up the rapid deployment facility at Oxford Biomedica to manufacture the vaccine at scale.

Vaccine data

• The YouGov data comparing uptake rates in countries around the world is available here.
• Vaccinated people are far less likely to get COVID-19 with symptoms. Vaccinated people are even more unlikely to get serious COVID-19, to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it and there is growing evidence that vaccinated people are less likely to pass the virus to others.
• Data from PHE’s real-world study shows the vaccines are already having a significant impact in the UK, reducing hospitalisations and deaths, saving more than 13,200 lives and preventing at least 39,700 hospitalisations in England.
• PHE analysis also shows that individuals who receive a single dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have approximately 80% lower risk of death against the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant originating in Kent and a second dose of the vaccine can provide 85-90% protection against symptomatic disease. Protection against death from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine rises from approximately 80% after one dose to 97% after two doses against the Kent variant.
• Data published by YouGov shows the UK continues to top the list of nations where people are willing to have a COVID-19 vaccine or have already been vaccinated. ONS data published on 6 May found that more than 9 in 10 (93%) adults reported positive sentiment towards the vaccine.
• Approved vaccines are available from thousands of NHS vaccine centres, GP practices and pharmacies. Around 98% of people live within 10 miles of a vaccination centre in England and vaccinations are taking place at sites including mosques, community centres and football stadiums
• The latest UK-wide vaccination statistics are published here and NHS England publishes vaccine statistics for England here.