COVID-19 Update – 24/11/2020: Vaccines
COVID-19 Update: Vaccines
News of vaccines for COVID-19 is coming in fast now with the welcome preliminary announcement of the Oxford vaccine trial results, following quickly on from reports from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
The NHS has published its COVID-19 vaccine deployment strategy which confirms the plan for three delivery models, based in NHS Trusts, large scale vaccination sites and community/primary care led. The vaccines themselves will be critical to deciding which and when, based on cold chains and vaccine stability.
Occupational Health services other than in the NHS where colleagues are already being asked to collaborate with plans for vaccine delivery in their Trusts are unlikely to be directly involved, although there may be opportunities for OH practitioners to join the vaccination workforce for the large-scale centres as recruitment progresses.
The FOM has been asked for advice about the vaccination programme and one of our colleagues, a specialist in Occupational Medicine, is now involved in the planning process as Clinical OH Lead for the COVID vaccination programme at the Department of Health and Social Care.
Dr Anne de Bono
President
Faculty of Occupational Medicine
