Britain is preparing to give out the first of hopefully many Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines on Tuesday, December 8. Just a week ago they were the first to approve the vaccine. England, Wales, and Scotland will give them out on Tuesday and Northern Ireland will give them out later that week but hasn’t given an exact date yet.

The vaccine is under strict conditions by Pfizer/BioNTech and each recipient must get two doses three weeks apart. Deputy and Chief of the NHS providers said they have already received their vaccine and the process is “really well underway now”.

CNN stated that they are expected to have around 4 million doses of the vaccine by the end of December, which is 95% effective against COVID-19. The Government has ordered over 40 million doses which will be enough to vaccinate 20 million people (one-third of the UK population). 

The UK has reported more deaths than anywhere else in Europe. This vaccine was approved faster and the process of approval was easier than any other vaccine. The UK medicines regulator said, “as safe as any other general vaccine”.

Recipients may have mild symptoms but it would go away in a day or two. No other  serious symptoms. Some symptoms are pain at the injection site, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever. “Our goal at the MHRA is to make sure that whatever the outcome, whatever the deal, medicines, medical devices, and vaccines reach everyone in all parts of the country in the same way without any interruption at all,” June Raine head of the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said. According to the MHRA,  more than one in ten recipients may suffer side effects.