and quickly to professor van tam.g deployed in the uk this year, would you be able to put a figure on that? thank you very much. cue for those three questions. if i take the first one first and then i will ask professor va n one first and then i will ask professor van tam to come in. when it comes to christmas i understand it comes to christmas i understand it is the most important holiday in our year it is the most important holiday in ouryearand it is the most important holiday in our year and what it is the most important holiday in ouryearand whatan it is the most important holiday in our year and what an emotional attachment people have to seeing theirfamily over attachment people have to seeing their family over christmas, of course they do. so we are looking for ways to allow that to happen but also ina for ways to allow that to happen but also in a way that is safe. the question of how quickly the virus recedes when it has gone up depends on what you get the r number down to, so there is not a fixed figure. th

again, ministers, and certainly jonathan van tam said it would be wrong for anyone but the nhs to behose, and the government set out a go for those, and the government set outa chain, go for those, and the government set out a chain, the elderly and frail, and those under severe risk at the top then, health workers and it goes down to those under 50, just have to wait a while. that's not a bad thing. sonia, it's the -- for 20 million people, it's a double dose of this vaccine, when youth about how the flu vaccine is distributed, how the flu vaccine is distributed, how do you think this could potentially work, what do you reckon? well, what's reassuring is if there is already lots of new things about exactly how the vaccine would be distributed come i think people have sort of heard the news, heard it has to be kept at —80 degrees in storage, really worried about the distribution, but if you read the reporting in the newspapers, it would suggest that there's already a lot of work under way to establish these supply chains. you know, we are quite a rich country, so we can get these sup

i'm joined by professor jonathan van tam, the deputy chief medicalfor it, jonathan van tam, the deputydicalfor it, and by doctor susan hopkins, the chief medical adviser to nhs test and trace. before we talk about testing and vaccines, i'd like to update you on the latest coronavirus data. the average number of new cases each day is now 25,329, up of new cases each day is now 25,329, up from 22,aa3 last week. today there are 1a,915 covert patients in hospital across the uk, compared to 13,000 a week ago and sadly yesterday 160 deaths were reported. this means that in the last week we've seen an this means that in the last week we've seen an average this means that in the last week we've seen an average of a13 deaths, up we've seen an average of a13 deaths, up from 332 a day a week ago. my profound sympathies are with eve ryo ne profound sympathies are with everyone who has lost a loved one throughout this pandemic. and these numbers make painfully clear that this virus remains a potent threat. that threat isn't just to the this virus remains a potent threat. that threat isn'tjust to th

thank you very much, professor van tam, a vaccine thatis much, professor van tam, a vaccine that is 90%terday, 10% may still have died even if all had had the vaccine. can we return to normal by easter, as some have suggested, if 53 people per day are still dying from covid? can i also ask, it looks like a lot of people under 50 who may well be at low risk of death but still face potentially lifelong debilitating effects of long covid won't get the vaccine in the first phase. what circumstances would they receive a vaccine, which, as we now know, 90% effective ? receive a vaccine, which, as we now know, 90% effective? thanks, thomas. know, 9096 effective? thanks, thomas. how soon are we going to return to normal and what role will vaccines play in that? at this point, i don't think those questions can be answered. we don't yet know what the programmatic effect of rolling out the vaccine to the high—risk groups that we have outlined will be. that will take time for those effects to be seen. vaccine delivery is not going to be instant across all of those groups. vaccine production is not

and the metro has quite a headline — van tam: jab for mam — and reports that england's deputy chief medicals urging people to ‘line up‘ for the coronavirus vaccine when it's ready. he said it passes the ‘mum test‘ and he'll be encouraging his 78—year—old mother to get the jab. the mirror runs with the same story, saying that older people will be encouraged to sign up for the vaccine. the guardian also reports on the vaccine but also features a picture of the pro—democracy caucus in the hong kong legislature, who resigned enmasse after beijing imposed a new law to force out ‘unpatriotic‘ members. the i adds that england's deputy chief medical officer warned the vaccine must not be sold privately and distribution should be based on those who need it most to stop wealthy people from jumping the queue. the times leads on borisjohnson‘s director of communications‘ resignation tonight, claiming the prime minister's fiancee and senior advisers opposed plans to appoint him as chief of staff. the financial times reports on a potential tax reform recommended by a review that would target landlords an

you read out the list, professor van—tam, of the priorities and said they were preliminary but givensing from that list, should there be teachers on that list? and can you also tell me, prime minister, would the cabinet get a priority for being vaccinated? and can! get a priority for being vaccinated? and can i also ask, given that you started talking about the death figures and r number, where on the scale of one to ten are you in your confidence to be able to lift england's lockdown on the 2nd of december? thank you very much, victoria. on your first question about who gets it, which categories of people, we will be guided very much by the joint of people, we will be guided very much by thejoint committee on vaccination and immunisation. i think you have got to look at where the doses can be most appropriately distributed to protect people, to save life, and drive down the r unto everything flows from that and that is why i thought that whatjonathan had to say was absolutely right. —— and everything flows. and on december two and where we are going, don't forget that this package e

and we heard professor van tam describing the mum test.rst wave who get it to take this up. absolutely. and i think that the order population will recognise that, and it is in the order population, folks that are in care homes, health care workers, who will be the first to receive a vaccine, we do need to think really carefully about how we promote the uptake of vaccines in the general population. there's been a lot of unfounded suspicion about vaccines over the yea rs, suspicion about vaccines over the years, and this has resulted in some terrible things. for instance, measles has become a problem again. in fact, their reports in the last couple of years of children dying of measles because of children not being vaccinated, and we do need to get across how important vaccination is and how important it is that as much of the population is vaccinated, if we're really going to out the fire of covid—i9 infection. professor lawrence young from the university of warwick, take you for your time during university of warwick, take you for yourtime

deputy chief medical officer professorjonathan van tam said at that news conference hence said thester described yesterday‘s announcement about the development of a potential coronavirus vaccine. early results show the jab could prevent 90% of people getting covid—19. so how would it work? the vaccine uses a tiny part of the genetic sequence of the virus, rather than the actual virus itself. synthetic material, known as rna, is injected into muscle cells in the arm. this leads to the creation of antibodies — they bind onto coronavirus and prevent future infections. killer t—cells are also produced. these should identify and destroy infected cells. news of the vaccine resulted in this clip going viral. it‘s from the world at one bbc radio 4, when sarah montague asked an expert if the news meant that life could be returning to normal by spring. yes, yes, yes. i‘m probably the first guy to say that, but i will say that with some confidence. that's fabulous news. professorjohn bell, thank you so much for talking to us. that was professor sirjohn bell from the uk vaccine task force, who

england's deputy chief medical 0fficerjonathan van—tam said he was hopeful the first vaccine might bey christmas and there would be a much better horizon by next spring. the prime minister borisjohnson said that one significant hurdle had been cleared but there were several more to go. and some experts pointed out that this announcement was made on the basis of very early analysis with the vaccine not yet formally approved. 0ur medical editor fergus walsh reports on the optimism and the caution which greeted today's news. this is a huge day for science, and perhaps the world. for the first time, a covid—19 vaccine has been shown to protect against the disease. plenty of caution is needed, but the preliminary results of the pfizer—biontech trial are highly promising. there were more than 43,000 volunteers on the trial, which began in july. half got the coronavirus vaccine, half a dummy, or placebo jab. interim results showed 94 of the volunteers fell ill with coronavirus — nearly all in the non—vaccinated group. as a result, pfizer says the vaccine is more than 90% effective. it's such

and england's deputy chief medical officer, professor jonathan van tam, said he wanted the vaccinationavailable to those who need it most, and not to those who can afford to pay for it privately. here's our medical editor fergus walsh. this is the life we are not living because of coronavirus, a world without social distancing or facemasks, the freedom to meet, travel and celebrate together. 0nly a safe and effective covid vaccine can guarantee an eventual return to this and an end to the pandemic. early results suggest fighter‘s vaccine is 90% effective at preventing covid. there is hope it could be given emergency authorisation by early december, but the medicine's regulator says no corners will be cut. although we have adapted our processes to undertake our rigorous review of effectiveness and safety in a rolling way, there is absolutely no chance that we will compromise on standards of safety or effectiveness. creating a completely new vaccine usually takes at least ten yea rs new vaccine usually takes at least ten years from design and development and animal studies, to clinical t

the minister told lord patel that the deputy chief medical officer, johnathan van tam, was the "faceemain an important voice. you're watching wednesday in parliament, with me, alicia mccarthy. peers have voiced reservations about new legislation giving undercover agents a legal right to engage in criminal conduct. introducing the covert human intelligence sources bill was the new advocate general for scotland, lord stewart, who was only sworn into the house of lords on monday. so his opening remarks on these controversial measures doubled up as a maiden speech. the covert human intelligence sources criminal conduct bill seeks to ensure that there is a clear and consistent statutory basis to authorise participation in conduct which could otherwise be criminal where this is necessary and proportionate to what is sought to be achieved. he said it provided an express power to authorise agents to participate in criminal activity. this is known as a criminal conduct authorisation. the effect of an authorisation is to make the conduct lawful for all purposes. and i recognise that this is a

england's deputy chief medical officer, professorjonathan van tam, said he would be front of the queuehe was allowed to be. here is a medical editor, fergus walsh. this is the life we aren't living — because of coronavirus, a world without social distancing orfacemasks, the freedom to meet, travel and celebrate together. only a safe and effective covid vaccine can guarantee an eventual return to this and an end to the pandemic. early results suggest pfizer's vaccine is 90% effective at preventing covid. there's hope it could be given emergency authorisation by early december, but the medicines regulator, the mhra, says no corners will be cut. although we have adapted our processes to undertake our rigorous review of effectiveness and safety in a rolling way, there is absolutely no chance that we will compromise on standards of safety or effectiveness. creating a completely new vaccine usually takes at least ten years from design and development and animal studies to clinical trials, regulatory review and production. this has been compressed tojust ten months. the clinical trial phases

in the press briefing last night, the deputy chief medical officer, professor jonathan van tam made itsome of the routine work, more of the cancer treatments going. already we are seeing some hospitals having to cancel some of the nonurgent work. the pressures are very acute and we are only in november. despite yesterday‘s good news, we should be braced for a very difficult winter. there have been claims that the second wave has already peaked, what did the statistics show? it is interesting, before lock there were some signs the levels of infection were stabilising. we know the official monitoring programme run by the office for national statistics show that by the end of october infections were stabilising. we are seeing something similar in the official figures seeing something similar in the officialfigures for seeing something similar in the official figures for the number is coming forward testing positive around the country. they are hovering around the 22,000 a day on average. it suggests it may have peaked before lockdown, the regional tier programme might have slow the spread

the deputy chief medical officer for england professor jonathan van—tam has been giving his reaction let's listen to what he said. this is very good news at a kind of strategic level because it is the third goal in the back of the net now in my penalty shoot out. it's the third vaccine with a positive readout, and it really does make it highly likely that in the months that follow we are going to have in covid a vaccine preventable disease which is terrific news. but the results today are interim. they are based on more than 2a,000 volunteers, of which about 12,000, just under, got the vaccine itself. and the official headline, if you put all the studies around the world together, is that we have a 70% vaccine effectiveness readout. this is the first signal from a vaccine trial we have had about hospital admissions. and in the totality of the az data they have presented in their press statement this morning, there were no hospital admissions due to covid at all in the patients who received either of the vaccine regiments. and that's really terrifically important. because it is hospit

and the metro has a punchy headline — "van—tam: jab for mam." chief medical officer, who says he is so confident in the safety of the covid vaccine that he is encouraging his 78—year—old mother to take it as soon as it is licenced and available. it's what he called the moment test. —— montez. would you ask your mum to do it? he was talking about the amount of time he not is able to be at home. 0ver amount of time he not is able to be at home. over the christmas period, december, he will be helping administer the vaccines if they are available so he has already warned his children he won't be at home as much because, as many gps will find out later, i claim to be very busy. we will be speaking to a gp at 6:30am. injusta we will be speaking to a gp at 6:30am. injust a few we will be speaking to a gp at 6:30am. in just a few minutes. how long do we have? 2.5 minutes. do you wa nt to long do we have? 2.5 minutes. do you want to do your thing because it has tickled you. you might have seen a bit of this story. this is a new film being released in the

england's deputy chief medical officer, jonathan van tam, says more work needs to be done, but he's delightednes. the uk has already ordered 100 million doses and if it passes all safety checks it could be available by the end of december. our health correspondent dominic hughes reports. that light at the end of the tunnel has just got brighter. the news that the long—awaited 0xford vaccine is safe and effective brings the end of the pandemic one step closer. what we've found is that, overall in the trials across the uk and brazil, we managed to prevent about 70% of infections, but, importantly, in people who were vaccinated with the new coronavirus vaccine, no—one was hospitalised or had severe disease. 70% is a highly effective vaccine, it's better than the flu vaccine is in most years. so how effective is the oxford vaccine? in a trial of more than 20,000 volunteers in the uk and in brazil, it found the vaccine was about 70% effective in stopping people from developing covid—19. but if the amount of vaccine is tweaked so that volunteers were given a low dose followed by a higher one, that

as deputy chief medical officer, jonathan van—tam, said yesterday, it is like the first goal scored in the goalkeeper can be beaten. the health secretary there. a good analogy. talking about being one step closer toa talking about being one step closer to a new coronavirus vaccine. in politics, timing is everything. news that pfizer's coronavirus vaccine — which is still under development — is shaping up to be 90% effective, came too late for voters in the us election. something which hasn't escaped the notice of donald trump, if you look at his twitter feed. cases of coronavirus have been surging across the us 100,000 new diagnoses are being made every day, bringing the total to well over ten million. 59,000 people are now in hospital — that's the highest ever figure in the us. nearly 240,000 people have now died. against this grim backdrop, an effective vaccine could make a huge difference. but to achieve mass immunity, a vaccine needs to be delivered to as many people as possible. tulip mazumdar‘s been looking at how that might happen. as the scientists offer a glimmer of hope, the

and that is whyjonathan van tam said if i could be at the front of the queue for that vaccine, i wouldccination will allow us to be saferand i'm sure, as chris vaccination will allow us to be safer and i'm sure, as chris said, the mhra will ensure that the efficacy, the way the vaccine works, and its effectiveness and safety will be guaranteed, guaranteed a spot as we can. and they will be continuing trials dash and as far as we can. this is something about please use the vaccines as soon as they are available because this is to protect yourselves and your family. can youjust to protect yourselves and your family. can you just explain the full edge at the beginning, because we cannot hear you at the beginning? last week there was a sunflower envy, of course. you told me that you were disappointed with my floral display. i only had green plants. and i had to do better. so this week i've gone and endowed myself with a specimen of orchid. it loosely translates as plastic testicles. what did you have behind you?” translates as plastic testicles. what did you have behind you? i have a poins

last week, jonathan van tam, the deputy chief medical officer, described the announcement from pfizerir results pretty soon. this is encouraging, it means we will have a range of different options and in this game, having a range of options is very important. you don't want to back one horse in a hot one—horse race. doctor chris smith there and jennifer rohn as well, thank you for answering those questions. tesco, sainsbury‘s and marks and spencer say they are reviewing working practices at one of their indian suppliers — after a bbc investigation found evidence workers were being exploited. women at a factory which makes home textiles for the brands said they were forced to work excessive hours, and weren‘t even allowed toilet breaks. the bbc also heard claims of poor working conditions from staff at an indian supplier to ralph lauren. rajini vaidya nathan reports. in the world of fashion, they are the forgotten — the women who make our clothes. a million miles from the catwalk, they often live in dire poverty, their monthly salaries, barely enough to feed theirfamilies. but these wo

after doing a lot of work with sage and jonathan van—tam throughout that period to create a covid safecommunities, to get our gym is back open. and i have to say, with 50 million visits since the 25th of july, and only 1.38 cases per 100,000 visits, i think we can safely say that we are decors or a spreader of the virus. we are keen to get back to doing what we do best, making the nation healthier, doing it at a time when they needed the most. and even more so, given lockdown, it is, right in the heart of winter, where it is dark and cold, therefore it is not as safe as it was back in lockdown want to exercise outside. i think from our point of view a little bit more optimistic this morning. william: cani optimistic this morning. william: can ijust optimistic this morning. william: can i just ask you, with the prospect of reopening in some form, how easy is it for your pubs to reopen? how much work do you need to put into place for that to happen? well, we are ready to open. we have got all of our landlords waiting to hear what tier they fall under. manchester, of course, we are in man

that's according to england's deputy chief medical officer, professor jonathan van—tam.ivery of 5 million doses. three other vaccines are currently being tested here in the uk. one of them is the university of oxford vaccine, with results from that study expected in the next few weeks. us firm novavax and belgian company janssen are also in trials. as it stands, the government says it has secured early access to 350 million doses of all the potential vaccines — as long as they are approved by the regulator. we're joined now by two of our regular guests here on breakfast — who often guide us through these type of scientific developments. now to have some good news! professor sian griffiths is in oxford and dr chris smith is in cambridge. thank you both forjoining us. lots of these vaccines, you need two doses, even though they have bought 5 million that is only 2.5 million people? absolutely right, 2.5 million people with this vaccine, so every time you hear a number of doses, you how's it for the number of people. that is that the current time, because the two vaccines g

given his permission, which it is looking like it will be, then certainly, we heard from jonathan van—tamsaying that, you know, he would be putting his mum up for the jab as soon as he could. and on the asymptomatic and transmission data on this, because it is quite complex, isn't it, in terms of whether you can still get the symptoms but pass it onto other people? what the data on that? at the moment, it is looking like it may offer some protection against transmission, but we don't know how much, so we have to be very careful with that. we have heard from astrazeneca saying they have some data, but we haven't seen full data on this. at the moment, all of these vaccines are talking about protecting people from getting ill with the infection, rather than stopping the spread, and that is quite an important difference, because if these jabs don't actually prevent people passing it on, then we have still got to be very careful until the very vulnerable have been immunised and got some immune protection. yes, and absolutely my final question, how long do we think we get immunity for, about a

certainly, jonathan van—tam, deputy chief medical officer, he said he would not want this to be somethingernments are going to take them right through 2021. it is just whether or not already somebody has put in some early orders and got in there at the beginning and said, i will take 10,000 doses, whatever, of your gap will take 10,000 doses, whatever, of yourgap and i'm will take 10,000 doses, whatever, of your gap and i'm prepared to pay for it. i cannot guarantee that. —— of yourjab. but it. i cannot guarantee that. —— of your jab. but i it. i cannot guarantee that. —— of yourjab. but i think it is unlikely we will see much of that. thank you, we will see much of that. thank you, we will see much of that. thank you, we will talk again soon, fergus walsh, our medical editor. i always learn so much from fergus. my word of the day, immunosenescence. remember what it means? fergus spoke about it. looking at the changes in the immune system associated with age and that is what everyone is looking at. it's week five of strictly, and it would normally mean contestants gearing up for the black

jonathan van tam talked about some sort of normality by spring, we were talking about potentially startingdependent upon the science. the reason i am cautious about putting the date on it is because this is not an administrative decision by ministers, it has to be determined by the science. i will only allow, and the regulators will only allow, and the regulators will only allow, and the regulators will only allow a vaccine to be deployed when we know it is clinically safe. 0urjob right when we know it is clinically safe. our job right now when we know it is clinically safe. 0urjob right now is to ensure that should that happen, as soon as it happens, we are ready to deploy with the nhs. last night i wrote to gps in the nhs to assure them and to ask them to play their part in this roll—out. we will be working across the nhs with the support of the armed forces, seven days a week, over weekends and bank holidays, to get this rolled out into people pulse my arms as quickly as possible. i can tell you that today i will be announcing £150 million of support for gps. and the programme of roll—o