GP reveals Covid vaccines already reducing virus deaths and hospital admissions in Sheffield

Dr Anthony Gore, who is a clinical director at Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), hailed the ‘amazing effort’ by people involved in the vaccination programme across the city, where it was revealed at the weekend that 130,000 people in the top four priority groups had now been given their first jab.

He believes it is already starting to have an impact on reducing serious illness among those aged over 70 who have been injected.

"I saw something the other day saying the number of people in hospital aged over 70 was falling more rapidly than for any other age group,” he said.

"Certainly what you would anticipate is that one jab is very, very effective at stopping serious illness, while two jabs are better at giving you full immunity.

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"The effect of giving that bigger chunk of the population their first jab sooner, starting with over 70s and frontline healthcare workers and now moving onto over-65s, is that you would expect hospital admissions and deaths to fall, especially among those groups, and there are signs that’s starting to happen.”

The latest data shows the number of new coronavirus cases in Sheffield and the number of Covid patients at the city’s hospitals are both falling.

And although those figures are not broken down by age group, research suggests that nationally the Covid death rate is falling faster among people aged over 80 who were first to be vaccinated.

The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) at University of Oxford found that the case fatality rate (CFR) had fallen by more than 30 per cent among all 80-plus age groups this year but by a maximum of 21 per cent among younger age groups.

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Researchers said: “While several explanations are possible for these patterns, these results do point to a potential impact of vaccination on the CFR for 80+ age groups.”

The Times, meanwhile, has reported that hospital admissions and deaths are already starting to reduce among those who have been vaccinated, according to preliminary data shared with ministers.

Dr Gore, who works as a GP at Woodseats Medical Centre, said the vaccination programme in Sheffield and across the country had been ‘hugely successful’ so far and praised the ‘amazing effort’ by staff and volunteers to make it happen.

He said take-up in his area was above 90 per cent but has been lower in some parts of the city, especially those with a higher proportion of people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, though GPs are working hard to bust the myths he said are still doing the rounds on social media and give more people the confidence to get their jabs.

"We’re keen to get the message out that the vaccines are safe and effective,” he said.

"NHS and care staff are having it and we would be the first to be nervous about it if it was dodgy in any way.

"GP practices are working with their local community leaders and organisations to try to get the right messages out to people because it’s important people start hearing the truth from people in their own community.

"I just really want people to know that these vaccines are thoroughly tested and very, very safe.

"You shouldn’t listen to listen to any odd ideas you’ve heard on social media. Listen to the scientists and look at the figures showing how many people have been vaccinated safely and effectively in Sheffield and across the country.

“Hopefully as people start to see the vaccines working and helping bring down hospital admissions and deaths, it will dispel any misgivings even further and show everyone that these vaccines are safe and effective.”

Dr Gore told how Sheffield CCG had produced a number of videos, available in different languages, helping to dispel myths about the vaccines.

The Star has been contacted by some people concerned about the wait for their housebound relatives who are in their 90s to be vaccinated.

Dr Gore explained that vaccinating housebound patients had proved more challenging at first because the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which was the first to be available had to be stored at such low temperatures.

But he said that had changed now the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was available in significant quantities and in his primary care network more than 90 per cent of housebound patients in the top-four priority groups had been given their first jabs.

“There shouldn’t be anyone who’s been forgotten but if you’re aged over 70 and think you’ve been missed then ring your local practice and check,” he added.

Asked when lockdown restrictions might be eased, Dr Gore said that was for politicians and not doctors to decide.

But he said some relaxation of the rules should be possible as a larger proportion of the population is vaccinated and hospital admissions and deaths reduce further.

“I could see it being an Easter to summer time frame that the effect predominantly of the vaccination programme will mean that some of the restrictions will be relaxed. That seems inevitable,” he said.

"But a lot of the things we’ve got used to like wearing masks and social distancing will probably be around even longer because people don’t want to allow the virus to flare back up again.

"Even though lockdown will end, it won’t be a complete jump back to the old normal.”