United Kingdom responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
The United Kingdom's response to the COVID-19 pandemic consists of various measures by the healthcare community, the British and devolved governments, the military and the research sector.
This article is about the overall UK response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For other uses, see United Kingdom responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (disambiguation).
Throughout the pandemic, the British and devolved governments disseminated advice to the public, enacted numerous public health laws including several lockdowns, and provided financial support to several sectors.
The British military were mobilised to assist with the pandemic response and conducted operations within the UK and in its overseas territories. The National Health Services of each nation also took action to free up hospital beds and resources, increase available staff, and establish temporary hospitals, although personal protected equipment shortages were a major issue in the early stages of the outbreak. Increasing capacity for COVID-19 testing took the cooperation of government healthcare agencies, various laboratories, universities and the Royal Mail. The British research sector were involved in COVID-19 vaccine clinical research, drug development and other innovation.
Military[edit]
On 19 March 2020, the UK government announced the formation of a military task force, named the COVID Support Force, to assist with the pandemic response. Two military operations, Operation Rescript and Operation Broadshare, were launched and 20,000 military personnel were placed on standby. This military assistance was available to government departments, devolved administrations and to the civil authorities via the military aid to the civil authorities (MACA) mechanism.[4]
Research and innovation[edit]
Children's vaccines[edit]
On 13 February 2021, adverse reaction tests began in 300 volunteer children and young people between the ages of six and 17 on the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Oxford University Professor Andrew Pollard was the Principal Investigator for this round. He "said most children are relatively unaffected by coronavirus and are unlikely to become unwell... It is important to establish the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and young people [because] some children may benefit from vaccination." He partnered with sites in London, Southampton and Bristol to help him with his study.[127]
On 6 April 2021, Maggie Wearmouth of the JCVI said "in a personal capacity" that the vaccine roll-out should be slowed "in younger people" to maintain public trust and confidence, after the committee had discussed concerns over a possible link between the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine and a "rare type of blood clot"[128] thrombosis, although Paul Hunter declared on 14 April in a piece commissioned by the BMJ that "These rare events must not derail vaccination efforts."[129]
On 24 April 2021, as the NHS celebrated "over half of UK now vaccinated", JCVI member Adam Finn who is a University of Bristol Professor of paediatrics expressed frustration with the caution surrounding children. "In my normal life I spend my time doing vaccine trials in children. And children are very much prioritised for most vaccines, so it's a very weird and unusual situation we're in now because I and other colleagues have spent the last year doing vaccine trials in adults and mostly in older adults, because of the nature of the problems that Covid presents. So the children have really got very much left behind in this programme really because the children for the most part have not been affected by Covid in any serious way."[130]
On 4 June 2021, government announced that the MHRA had concluded its assessment of Pfizer-BioNTech trial data for the 12-15 year old cohort. MHRA Chief Executive Dr June Raine reported "that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh any risk." Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, Chair of the Commission on Human Medicines said that "Over 2000 children aged 12-15 years were studied as part of the randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials."[131]
On 7 June 2021, JCVI Deputy Chair Professor Anthony Harnden expected government "to include children after the medicines regulator approved the Pfizer vaccine for those aged 12 to 15" and would soon present the MHRA's positive conclusion to his colleagues for their approval.[132] Because "In order to prevent any perceived conflict of interest it was agreed that the JCVI Chair (Professor Andrew Pollard), who is involved in the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine at Oxford, would recuse himself from all JCVI COVID-19 meetings",[133] Harnden acts in his stead on these matters.
On 11 June 2021, the USCDC scheduled an "Emergency Meeting" because 226 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis heart inflammation had been seen particularly in adolescents and young adults after Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccination, and reportedly were still "working on" over 200 additional reported cases in the age group.[134]
On 15 June 2021, the JCVI still had not issued its public judgement of the Pfizer-BioNTech children's data, but was rumoured to be considering a pause "until scientists have more data on the risks", so "Ministers will be advised against the mass rollout of Covid vaccinations to children." Some members were "understood to have voiced serious ethical concerns about vaccinating children, given that they rarely suffer serious illness from Covid." One writer and "one senior government source" remarked that because the MHRA had on 4 June declared safe that vaccine for youth, it would be safe for Cabinet to ignore the JCVI. This news came on the day when France had approved vaccinations for the same age category. Harnden told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We do have to be absolutely sure these vaccines are completely safe. The MHRA said they are safe in trials, but of course that's very different to immunising millions of children. We'll be looking very carefully at the data emerging from the US and other countries on vaccines in children before making any assumptions, but we're not there yet with children."[135]
Also on 15 June, the leader of the National Education Union Kevin Courtney expressed that "children ought to be fully vaccinated before returning to school in September", and said that "should the Government decide to vaccinate schoolchildren", this should happen "as quickly as possible".[136]
On 17 June Professor Pollard, who because "In order to prevent any perceived conflict of interest it was agreed that the JCVI Chair (Professor Andrew Pollard), who is involved in the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine at Oxford, would recuse himself from all JCVI COVID-19 meetings",[133] pronounced himself on vaccinating youngsters to Sarah Knapton and Harry de Quetteville of The Daily Telegraph. He said, while the JCVI was in session over the issue but in order ostensibly to stop the chaos caused by the policy of government, that "If children are not severely affected, if they're not major drivers of transmission, the testing itself is picking up lots of cases - causing classes to be sent home and so on - we've got to get to a point where we're not impacting on education. And I think that impact on education could be a reason for vaccination."[137]
In early September, although the JCVI had "failed to recommend Covid-19 vaccines for healthy 12- to 15-year-olds, and instead advised that more children with underlying health conditions and vulnerable relatives should be offered the jab" while "protesters clashed with police outside the MHRA headquarters in Canary Wharf, resulting in four officers being injured"[138] Sajid Javid planned "to push through the rollout of jabs to all 12 to 15-year-olds" with the aid of CMO Chris Whitty and a "guidance circulated to NHS trusts" which said "that most 12 to 15-year-olds should be deemed Gillick competent to provide [their] own consent over jabs", and thereby override the need for parental consent. John Edmunds, part of the SAGE group that advises government on medical issues, said that "if we allow infection just to run through the population, that's a lot of children who will be infected and that will be a lot of disruption to schools in the coming months."[139]
Biological research[edit]
UK Research and Innovation also announced £20 million to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and to test the viability of existing drugs to treat the virus.[140] The COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium will deliver large-scale, rapid whole genome sequencing of the virus that causes the disease and £260 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to support vaccine development.[141][142] In April, the UK Government launched a task force to help develop and roll out a coronavirus vaccine.[143][144] A University of Edinburgh led study in to whether specific genes cause a predisposition into the effects that COVID-19 had on people began in May.[145][146] The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, studied whether sniffer dogs could detect coronavirus in humans.[147] Following research by King's College London of symptoms from 1.5 million suspected cases, "loss of taste or smell" was added to the NHS symptoms list.[148]
Design and innovation[edit]
In March 2020, the government asked manufacturers in the UK to help in the production of respiratory devices to help fight COVID-19.[149] Innovate UK announced £20 million funding for innovative businesses.[150] The Formula One teams and manufacturers based in the UK linked up to form "Project Pitlane".[151]
A group of engineers from Mercedes and University College London, along with staff from University College Hospital, designed and made a product known as UCL-Ventura breathing aid, which is a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the second model of the device. The UK Government put an order in for 10,000 devices. Mercedes made the drawings for the device available for free to help other countries fight COVID-19.[152][153] On 16 April the MHRA approved the Penlon Prima ESO2, design which was part of the stream known as VentilatorChallengeUK. The UK government ordered 15,000 of these devices.[154][155] A consortium of aerospace companies including Airbus, Meggitt, and GKN worked on scaling up production of an existing design.[156][157] In April this design was approved by the MHRA and an order for 15,000 units was placed.[158] Other designs by JCB, Dyson and BlueSky were not taken forward.[159] Eight other designs had their support ended by the UK government.[159][160][161][153]
A CPAP device, known as a Covid emergency ventilator, designed by Dr Rhys Thomas, a consultant anaesthetist at Glangwili General Hospital in Carmarthen, was given the go-ahead by the Welsh Government.[162] The machine, designed in a few days was used on a patient in mid-March 2020, and subsequently funded by the Welsh Government. In early April, it was approved by the MHRA. Production is by CR Clarke & Co in Betws, Carmarthenshire.[163][164]
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) produced a reusable visor with the first deliveries just before Easter, and shared the designs to allow wider manufacture.[165][166] The Royal Mint manufactured medical visors for medical staff working during the pandemic.[167][168]
Clinical trials[edit]
As of December 2020, clinical trials of five coronavirus vaccine candidates have been conducted in the UK: Oxford-AstraZeneca AZD1222, Imperial College London LNP-nCoVsaRNA, Novavax NVX-CoV2373, Janssen Pharmaceutica Ad26.COV2.S, and Valneva SE VLA2001.[169]