'We're going to need all hands on deck': Why the U.K. is recruiting volunteers to administer COVID-19 vaccines
Thousands of people with health-care experience will be trained as part of the country's immunization program
As the U.K. ramps up its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, thousands of volunteers with health-care experience will be trained to provide the shots.
"We've got so many people to vaccinate that we're going to need all hands on deck," said Dr. Sarah Wollaston, who returned to practice medicine during the pandemic after nearly a decade as a member of Parliament.
The U.K.'s National Health Service, or NHS, has been tasked with the mammoth job of rolling out COVID-19 vaccines to the country's 66 million citizens. On Tuesday, England became the first country to begin administering Pfizer-BioNTech's two-dose vaccine.
In order to get the job done, the NHS is recruiting thousands of volunteers to help administer the COVID-19 vaccines as they become available.
"They changed the regulations to make sure that people who perhaps wouldn't normally be administering vaccines but have some health-care experience can take on this role," Wollaston told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
"Of course, they'll be properly trained in the practical skills, and they'll be properly supervised in a team where there will always be people around to make sure that this is being delivered safely."
The NHS is providing the shot to people based on risk, BBC News reported, with long-term care residents and their families, health-care workers and people over age 75 set to receive it first.
According to Wollaston, there are more than 4.7 million people in that category alone.
'There's massive enthusiasm'
Volunteers will comprise retired health workers as well as those trained in first aid, with first-aid training organization St. John's Ambulance one of the groups helping to coordinate training and deployment.
Wollaston says that the training will include not only information on how to administer the vaccine, but how to explain any potential risks for the vaccine to ensure there is informed consent and what to do in the event of an emergency, like a severe allergic reaction.
"I think it will be crucial that people have the confidence that they will be properly trained and that there will always be people there who could deal with the very, very unlikely circumstance that there's an issue," Wollaston said.
"If there are things that start to go wrong, then you could undermine confidence in the vaccines."
The army of vaccine volunteers will be crucial, she adds, for those in rural and remote parts of the country who may be unable to reach major centres where the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is being stored.
Wollaston says that the British government has so far gotten the vaccine program "right," but says that their overall response throughout the pandemic has missed the mark.
"There are parts of the handling of this pandemic that I'm sure in years to come will be part of a major inquiry because there were certainly appalling failures and delays in recognizing the severity of this," she told Bambury.
"We were late to lockdown. We had inadequate supplies of [personal protective equipment] and our track, test and trace mechanisms are still pretty woeful."
The shots will be available at hospitals and vaccination centres, in addition to doctor's offices and pharmacies. NHS numbers, a unique identifier given to British residents, will be used to keep tabs on who has received the vaccine, said Wollaston.
"There's massive enthusiasm for getting this job done as quickly, as safely and efficiently as we can."
Written by Jason Vermes. Produced by Sameer Chhabra.
