Reports of people turning down covid vaccine, saying ‘I’ll wait for the English one’

A doctor has expressed dismay about people refusing a Covid-19 vaccine, saying they’d “wait for the English one”.

Dr Paul Williams, who assesses people with coronavirus symptoms in Hartlepool and Stockton, said some people were declining to have the US/German Pfizer-BioNTech jab in favour of what they called the ‘English’ Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is manufactured in large quantities in Wrexham.

The Wockhardt UK Ltd plant in Wrexham has the capability to produce around 300 million doses a year and aims to produce 150,000 vials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine a day.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said that both vaccines are safe.

Dr Williams posted on social media: “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’.

“People at risk of death in the depths of a pandemic.”

He added: “Please take care everyone. This is real and this has just got more serious.”

Times columnist David Aaronovitch said: “Fine. There isn’t much you can do with people who are being that stupid. Except feel sorry for them.

SNP strategist Ross Colquhoun said: “A case study in why you don’t attempt to politicise a vaccine, particularly with flags.

The English actor, writer and comedian Stephen Mangan said: “A new variant of stupid has emerged.”