Queen Elizabeth, other celebrities to lead way in supporting vaccination

LONDON • Britain's Queen Elizabeth will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine within weeks, after British regulators granted emergency approval and the world's first roll-out begins this week.

The monarch, 94, and her 99-year-old husband, Prince Philip, are in line to get the jab early due to their age and will not receive preferential treatment, the Mail on Sunday reported.

The newspaper said Britain's most senior royals would reveal they have been given the inoculation "to encourage more people to take up the vital jab", amid fears that people who oppose vaccination could dent enthusiasm for it.

In 1957, the Queen let it be known that Prince Charles and Princess Anne had received polio vaccines, helping build public support, the paper said.

Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last Wednesday, Britain granted emergency approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with health officials set to use criteria based on age and vulnerability to decide the order of people to receive it.

The Daily Mirror also reported that a string of high-profile figures in Britain had committed publicly to getting the vaccine in a bid to boost take-up. They include Monty Python star Michael Palin and singer-songwriter Bob Geldof, the tabloid said.

The government will start a large-scale advertising campaign, fronted by celebrities and other trusted voices before Christmas to support vaccination efforts, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the Telegraph.

Having a vaccine "will bring forward the moment when we can get rid of these blasted restrictions", Mr Hancock said of the country's rules to prevent the spread of the virus. "But until then we have got to follow them."

Regulators were forced to defend their world-first approval last Wednesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, insisting that it met all safety standards, after the United States and European officials queried the rapid process.

People should have "no doubt whatever that this is a very safe and highly effective vaccine", Dr June Raine, chief executive of Britain's medicine watchdog Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said on BBC TV's Andrew Marr Show yesterday.

"The highest standards of scrutiny, of safety and of effectiveness and quality have been met. International standards," she said, adding that the vaccine "will help us turn the corner".

As of yesterday afternoon, Britain had recorded a cumulative total of more than 1.7 million Covid-19 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, with more than 61,000 deaths.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG