Thank you for contacting me about the vaccine for COVID-19.
News in recent weeks of high rates of efficacy from different candidates for the vaccination programme is most welcome, and I will continue to follow progress closely, including monitoring safety reports.
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is seeking an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tool to process reported Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) to the COVID-19 vaccine scheme to ensure that no details from the reports are missed. It is a standard part of monitoring an approved drug or vaccine to process any adverse drug reactions; it absolutely does not mean in itself that the vaccine is not considered safe. Vaccinations undergo extensive efficacy and safety testing before they are rolled out to the wider population. The COVID-19 immunisation programme will be on a nationwide scale scarcely seen, and as such the MHRA needs to ensure that its software has capacity to process any reports of ADRs.
While important hurdles are being cleared by different vaccines, there are more to overcome before we know that these vaccines can be used.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Craig Whittaker MP
December 2020