LONDON - Britain on Wednesday became the first country to authorize an easy-to-handle COVID-19 vaccine whose developers hope it will become the "vaccine for the world." The approval and a shift in policy that will speed up the rollout of the vaccine in the U.K.
come as a surge in infections threatens to swamp British hospitals.The Department of Health said it had accepted a recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to authorize emergency use of the vaccine developed by Oxford University and U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca."The rollout will start on Jan.
4 and will really accelerate into the first few weeks of next year," British Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News. Britain has bought 100 million.