The first samples of the pandemic vaccine will arrive at the end of this month and a decision whether to approve it would then be taken within five days. But a spokesman for the European Medicines Agency has confirmed that no clinical trial data from human volunteers on the vaccines will be available until September at the earliest.Last night the Department of Health insisted that the vaccine would be safe and warned that any suggestion otherwise would create unnecessary panic. And today a senior adviser to the Government moved to calm concerns over the swine flu vaccine and said that the benefits far outweighed any potential risks.
Professor Sir Gordon Duff, co-chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said: 'We are content that benefits far outweigh the risks." He said the companies preparing the vaccine had been working on "core" vaccines which had been tested on 6,000 people.
'In a pandemic, you can't predict what the virus is going to be, so to make a vaccine you use a similar virus. These core vaccines have been tested on 5,000-6,000 people already, with no serious adverse effects. It is inconceivable that in the UK we would consider a vaccine without giving a full scientific appraisal of its benefits and theoretical risks. That is just what these risks are - theoretical.'
Sir Gordon added: "It has to be understood that it's a thing we have thought about a lot. We've looked at it from every scientific angle, and we have advised that getting this vaccine will be a lot safer for the population than letting the flu run away with itself. (Daily Mail)
