Sheffield's Public Health director warns there are still 'some unknowns' about new Covid-19 vaccine

In a Youtube video uploaded by the local authority yesterday (Friday, December 11) the city’s health boss explained how Sheffield’s vaccination programme will work using the new Pfizer/BioNTech jab which was administered for the first time at Northern General Hospital on Tuesday.

While Mr Fell urged people to only use reliable sources such as Public Health England or the government’s official website for news about the vaccine, he admitted there are still some ‘unknowns’ about the injection.

"A really important unknown is 'does it reduce the transmission of the illness, i.e do we get into a position where vaccinated people can't transmit the illness to others?", he said.

"We don't know that.

"The studies were done on the basis of does it reduce the risk of serious illness and death - it does but we don't actually know, we're all making an assumption that a happy side effect is that it reduces the risk of transmission, it probably will, but we'll need to keep a really, really careful watch on that.”

It comes after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a warning earlier this week, encouraging people with a “significant” history of allergic reactions to not take the jab, after two NHS workers experienced 'anaphylactoid reactions'.

Sheffield’s public health director also reminded residents to continue following the rules to slow the spread of the virus, as large swathes of the population need to receive the jab before we can get ‘anywhere near’ achieving herd immunity.

Mr Fell continued: "I think we are going to have to vaccinate almost all of the initially eligible population before we've got anywhere near herd immunity, which is enough of the population vaccinated to provide protection to those who genuinely can't have the vaccine because of an underlying medical condition of one type or another.

"We can all carry the virus on our hands, so even if I've been vaccinated and I can't transmit it via my respiratory droplets, I can still carry it on my hand.

"So for those two reasons alone, we won't be taking our eye off the nature of the pandemic and we certainly shouldn't take our eye off the protective measures we can all make around washing our hands, wearing face coverings, keeping distance, for some time to come yet."

The council’s health boss dismissed ‘interesting’ and ‘untruthful’ theories on social media about the coronavirus vaccine, such as unfounded claims that the jab can change a patient’s DNA.

"It can't, it's not physiologically possible and there's a host of other really interesting theories out there on social media", Mr Fell added.

"So just be careful where you get your information from, because there are a lot of interesting and very untruthful stories out there about the effects of the vaccine.”

He also reassured people that while the Pfizer/BioNTech injection was approved more quickly than other vaccines, the jab is safe and has been rolled-out after a ‘very robust’ regulatory process.

"It's a world renowned process.

"They have worked very speedily but certainly no corners have been cut."

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In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a digital subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Nancy Fielder, editor.