Covid-19: Patients urged to get vaccine as soon as they can

Matt Hancock said the Pfizer vaccine was "a tribute to scientific endeavour"

A doctor has urged people to get one of the two coronavirus vaccines as soon as they possibly can.

Dr Simon Stockley, from Eaglescliffe Medical Practice in Stockton, said he did not think there was a difference between the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca version.

"The best vaccine as far as I can work out is the one that can be put into your arm soonest," he said.

Another doctor claimed some patients had turned down the Pfizer vaccine.

The US/German Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was made available at the start of December, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca version was authorised on 30 December.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said both vaccines were safe.

"I can well understand that people are trying to make a decision as to whether one is better than another and I don't think there's any evidence that allows you to make that distinction," Dr Stockley told BBC Radio Tees.

"If you are being offered the Pfizer vaccine now, waiting for something else to come along that is describably better seems perverse."

Dr Stockley was responding to a tweet from Dr Paul Williams, former Labour MP for Stockton South, which said: "Some local patients have turned down an offer this weekend of getting a Covid vaccine when they found out it was the Pfizer one. 'I'll wait for the English one'."

Dr Williams was a GP and continued to see patients while he was an MP. After being voted out in 2019 he has worked at North Tees Hospital.

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Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously said the Pfizer vaccine was "a tribute to scientific endeavour and human ingenuity and to the hard work of so many people".

Boris Johnson has said getting the jab was "good for you and good for the whole country".

On Thursday, the prime minister confirmed almost 1.5 million people in the UK have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.

He said the vaccine rollout was a national challenge requiring an unprecedented effort and said it would involve the armed forces.

More than 1,000 GP-led sites in England will be able to offer a total of "hundreds of thousands" of jabs each day by 15 January, he said.