UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock received the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, in a public show of support for the jab which has been suspected of causing life-threatening blood clots.
Jonathan Van-Tam, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, administered the jab for Hancock at a vaccination centre in London.
“It didn’t hurt a bit, just like the Queen said. Barely a scratch,” he said.
Hancock said he was “very excited” when he was called for the jab, and encouraged everyone to take up the offer.
Last month, more than a dozen European countries—including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—suspended usage of the AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of blood clots as well as several deaths in people who had received the shot. Most countries have resumed using the vaccine but some have suspended inoculations in older individuals.
But MHRA insisted that the benefits of vaccination “continue to outweigh any risks.”
Some Christians have also expressed ethical concerns over the development process of the vaccine.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is an adenovirus vector vaccine that has been developed from kidney cell lines derived from a foetus aborted in 1973.
Johnson & Johnson’s stem cell line comes from an abortion performed in 1985, according to Science.