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Just 24 hours after the Scottish government announced similar intentions, the UK government today has announced that they have signed deals with two major vaccine manufacturers to provide 90 million `swine flu’ shots.
Swine flu: Government places order for 90million H1N1 vaccines
Contracts have been signed for up to 90 million doses of a pre-pandemic swine flu vaccine, the Department of Health announced today.
The deal, between the Government and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Baxter, means work can start on a vaccine before any pandemic begins.
By December this year, the UK would have enough pre-pandemic vaccine to protect at least half of the population from swine flu.
However, if the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares a pandemic before then, another contract would come into force which allows production of a pandemic swine flu vaccine.
The vaccines would almost certainly be the same unless the strain mutates sufficiently to require an entirely new vaccine to be made.
The delivery schedule listed here may be a bit on the optimistic side, given the unknowns about how well the virus will grow, and the amount of antigen needed to convey reasonable immunity.
If everything goes well . . . then it is certainly possible.
Unknown, also, is how long it would take to actually dispense the vaccine to the public.
Regardless of the delivery date, the UK would appear to be well positioned to receive an H1N1 vaccine at the earliest possible point in time.
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