"It's outperformed all expectations" - Keele University virologist praises NHS and vaccine rollout
It's six months since the first person in the UK had an approved jab
Six-months on sine the NHS started vaccinating people for the coronavirus, a top virologist from Keele University has been telling us that the roll-out has surpassed all expectations.
Back in December 2020, 90-year old Margaret Keegan became the UK's - and world's - first person to be given an approved COVID-19 vaccine, officially launching the UK's Vaccination Programme.
Fast forward to the present and over 68-million doses have been given out, including over six-million here in the West Midlands.
"It's an an incredible achievement. It's so much better than we could have ever hoped for." said Dr Naomi Forrester-Soto from Keele University.
"Manufacturing has produced sufficient doses, which was one of the initial concerns, and people have been willing to take it, which was another one. I mean, there are small pockets of people who don't - but the majority of people are willing and ready to take it. Just having that level of coverage is amazing, a really amazing achievement.
"I can't praise the NHS enough. They should be applauded all the way."
"I think the NHS and all the staff have done a fantastic job." said Naomi.
"I thought the roll-out would take a lot longer. I'll be honest, I thought there might be a few hiccups along the way.
"I thought we might have some interruptions with manufacturing. That was my major concern, I think not necessarily the rollout, but just the the ability to get hold of the vaccine, because vaccines are not always easy. But it's been really well coordinated across the board.
"This is so much better than we could have hoped for."
"I was I kind of was expecting us to be in this sort of place by the end of July, not at the beginning of June with our whole adult population vaccinated by the end of September."
Are we now seeing the vaccination programme work?
"It is doing the job, in that we are seeing a lot less people who are fully vaccinated ending up in hospital." Naomi added.
"As the people who were fully vaccinated first are those that are the most vulnerable, it does mean that we are seeing a reduction in that age group in the hospital. So in that respect it is working.
"I think we don't know how well it works until we see how it's worked over a longer timeframe, but it's done the job that it was supposed to do, which is to reduce the number of hospitalisations of the people in really vulnerable age bracket. So that has been a fantastic result."
Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Greatest Hits Radio app.