4 January 2021
Joint Intensive Care Society and Association of Anaesthetists Statement
about the COVID-19 vaccination
The Intensive Care society and the Association of Anaesthetists welcome the news that the Medicines and Healthcare
products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have determined that the Oxford
University/Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine has met the required standards of
safety, quality and effectiveness to be granted authorisation for use alongside
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The urgent national priority should now be the
rapid delivery of vaccinations to the millions of people that require them, as
set out in the updated Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI): Advice
on Priority Groups for COVID-19 Vaccination (issued 30 December 2020).
We are pleased to see that the JCVI guidance
highlights that frontline health and social care workers at high risk of
acquiring infection, at high individual risk of developing serious disease, or
at risk of transmitting infection to multiple vulnerable persons or other staff
within a healthcare environment are considered a high priority. In particular,
the ability of staff to continue to care for patients during the current surge
is now significantly stretched both by the numbers of inpatients and by staff
sickness.
We urge NHS England/Improvement, the UK
government, and the devolved administrations and healthcare systems, to make
all possible efforts to ensure that the priority groups identified in the JCVI
list receive vaccination as rapidly as possible, and to make the necessary
logistical support and infrastructure available.
`- ENDS-