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GPs are urging patients to get jabbed when they can after surgeries were told to get ready to start running Covid-19 vaccination clinics within days.
The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was approved for use last week with Britain's medicines regulator – the MHRA – saying the jab offers up to 95% protection across all ages.
Its approval will go down in history with the UK the first to green light a vaccine.
But lots of questions remain as to how the Pfizer jab, and other vaccines awaiting regulatory clearance, will perform as they are rolled out to millions in the coming weeks and months – including here in north Kent where rates are currently among the highest in the country.
Aideen Boalch, from Rainham, suffers from fibromyalgia, a long-term condition which causes pain all over the body.
The 51-year-old has indicated she will not immediately take up the jab and will urge her elderly mother to do the same as she believes more detailed information should be made public about its contents and what the long-term side effects are.
"A lot of people have illnesses and are on medication. How will this affect them in years to come?" she said.
"We don't know what is in it. If we buy food its tells you what’s in it, so why don’t we know what’s in this vaccine? It seems as if it's been rushed out."
Ms Boalch, who has regularly taken the flu vaccine in previous years, said she was not against the jab but wants assurances and clearer public health messages directly from scientists and GPs.
In trials for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, only 94 of 43,538 participants contracted Covid-19 since July.
Scientists have moved to reassure the public the speed of the vaccine's development through the trials does not mean it is not safe.
June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, said: “The public’s safety has always been at the forefront of our minds. Everyone can be completely confident that no corners have been cut."
Though this particular vaccine has taken only months to approve, the model for the mRNA vaccine and other types of coronavirus are the result of years of existing research.
Dr Manpinder Singh Sahota, of Pelham Medical Practice, Gravesend, said there was nothing to fear and understood the reasons behind its speedy development were twofold.
Firstly, there had been "unprecedented" scientific efforts and money thrown at what is a "global response", he said, and secondly, there were millions of infected people allowing trials to progress quicker than usual.
His message for anyone weighing up the relative risks of taking the vaccine is clear: get it as soon as you are able to.
The GP said he had no concerns about the Pfizer vaccine's path to regulatory approval and explained the MHRA is among the world's most respected and trusted regulatory bodies.
If anything, he said the approach was overly cautious, adding "two months is more than adequate in my view to look for any long-term side effects.
"There are always going to be a few people with a headache or sore muscles. They are quite typical and nothing to worry about."
Having said this, Dr Sahota said initial trepidation about take up was understandable and not unusual for any new unknown medical product.
"It it early days yet," he added, but most of his patients have indicated they are "desperate to take the vaccine".
"It is important their concerns are allayed and they get on board because the numbers [of people choosing not to take the vaccine] could grow," he said.
A Dartford man, who did not wish to be named, is among those who will decline the jab when it is his turn.
He raised concerns over the increasing curtails to public freedoms and in particular the potential for places like pubs and restaurants to be barred to those who had not received the vaccine.
"I do not think those who refuse a vaccine should be penalised in any way," he said. "I think that it is very dangerous; it is becoming almost dystopian.
"I do think it is a problem because a lot of people like me and friends I know say they will not take it."
From the outset of the pandemic, there have been complex arguments made about balancing individual liberty against the interests of wider society.
Cabinet Officer Michael Gove said last week there were no plans to introduce a so-called immunity or "vaccine passport".
His comments came after the vaccine minister suggested businesses could bar those who have not had a jab.
But it has since emerged that Sage – the taskforce assembled to advise the government on scientific evidence – has tasked several of its advisory groups to look into the feasibility of such passports, it is understood.
Dr Sahota says the best approach is for everyone – including his fellow GPs – to get behind the vaccine with a strong public health message.
"It is important that GPs come out and back the vaccine"
"I think they [government and local health leaders] are going to miss a trick if they don't use GPs to promote the vaccine.
"It is important that GPs come out and back the vaccine. Most people do trust their GP and I think it is important to get this message out."
In addition to family surgeries the vaccine will also be rolled out at 50 hospital hubs – but not initially at Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford and Medway Maritime Hospital – to "priority patients" and the over 80s.
The vaccine has been lauded as a turning point in the pandemic but its deployment will pose a "huge logistical challenge", the Prime Minister has warned.
In addition, its initial rollout will have only a "marginal impact" in reducing the numbers of patients admitted with Covid-19 over the next three months, all four UK chief medical officers have warned in a letter to healthcare settings.
"Considering the situation were are in, the high rates of deaths, we need to get the vaccine out as soon as possible," said Dr Sahota.
"It is still going to be very difficult but people will need to follow the rules until a significant amount of the population is vaccinated."
Doctors are also stressing that family surgeries are open to listen to any health issues of their patients, with some like Dr Sahota's practice seeing a phased return of some face-to-face meets.
Dr Sahota, who has more than 20 years' experience and also works for the local Vitality Home Health care team in Gravesend, said the impact of restrictions has had a devastating impact on his patients' physical and mental health.
"There are probably going to be more deaths from the side-effects of these restrictions," he said.
And while he recognised and strongly promoted the need for the added rules to curb the rate of infection, he says an unwanted by-product is that many other diseases have gone undetected.
Dr Sahota urged the government and public health leaders to "balance" the need for restrictions carefully with the ongoing damage to patient health.
"Chemo has been delayed," he said, adding "people are not seeing their GPs for the red signs of cancer" with lumps and bumps not followed up, or at worst ignored.
The pandemic has also taken its toll on mental health and has seen conditions such as dementia deteriorate due to a lack of social interaction needed to stimulate recovery, said Dr Sahota.
"Once we are up and running we are going to see lots of people who should have been presenting to us months ago."
Read more: All the latest news from Dartford
