After securing deals with pharmaceutical companies to purchase more than 90 million shots of promising COVID-19 vaccines, the National Health Service (NHS) urge the public to sign up to its new website for potential volunteers for coronavirus studies. The NHS aims to gather 500,000 participants until October.

It says that if thousands sign up, it will help scientists and researchers better understand each vaccine's effectiveness and speed up efforts to discover a safe and workable one. 

According to Mirror, Business Secretary Alok Sharma announced on Monday, June 20, that the government had sealed partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies that currently develop new vaccines against the coronavirus.

The NHS has secured early access to vaccines being developed by Valneva as well as the BioNTech-Pfizer partnership. Also, the government secured neutralizing antibodies against coronavirus from AstraZeneca to protect people who cannot obtain the vaccines, which include cancer patients and those with weak immune systems.

These new contracts will add to the 100 million doses of the vaccines being developed by Oxford University and Imperial College London. Human trials for both vaccines began in June, whereas Oxford scientists are expected to publish their trial results on the Lancet medical journal. 

These vaccine deals would give Wales, England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland enough doses of vaccines for priority groups such as social and health care workers as well as high-risk patients.

NHS' Test and Trace breaks data protection laws

The NHS seeks to encourage 500,000 people to sign up with its website until October. However, the Mirror reported that UK's Test and Trace system had breached the data protection laws. 

A campaign group claims that the government did not perform a key assessment before launching the website, the mass data-gathering system--admitted by the Department of Health.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) said such admission confirms a breach of Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulations, which was agreed upon across the European Union in 2016. The group also claimed the program is illegal since its launch on May 28.

People who signed up for the Test and Trace website will provide highly personal details such as names, addresses, and people whom they had close contact with. The system then tracks down those who recently got in contact with people who tested positive for coronavirus. They will be asked to isolate for 14 days.

"The reckless behavior of this Government is ignoring a vital and legally required safety step known as the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) has endangered public health," said ORG Executive Director Jim Killock. He also demanded the government to have emergency resolutions after companies "shared patient data on social media."

The health department insisted that the Test and Trace program went through numerous data protection impact assessments (DPIAs). However, to ensure all aspects of the scheme are comprehensively covered, authorities admitted that "further work is required," and they are currently "consolidating" these DPIAs.

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted people's data provided on the website had not been breached or illegally used.

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