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The vial will form part of an exhibit documenting the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 14 Dec 2020
Professor Stephen Powis and the Science Museum’s keeper of medicine Natasha McEnroe with the vial Credit: The Science Museum
The vial containing the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine administered outside of a trial is set to go on display at London’s Science Museum.
The vial - used on 90-year-old Coventry-resident Margaret Keenan - will form part of a collection showcasing the UK’s medical, scientific, cultural and personal responses to the pandemic.
It will be displayed alongside NHS home swab tests, test analysers, prototype medical technology and ‘Stay Home’ messaging from the British government’s daily briefings and other public signage.
Ventilators and other breathing equipment, as well as homemade masks, artworks and other creative pieces inspired by the pandemic, will also be exhibited.
“By preserving this tiny but significant object, we’re capturing the historic occasion of the first Covid-19 vaccination, to be shared with future generations,” said a Science Museum statement.
“These items are rare as collecting pandemic-related items is difficult. These items rarely survive, either due to the ephemeral nature (such as rapidly changing advice given on posters), because they are destroyed (due to contact with pathogens or bodily fluids) or perhaps because the people living through these traumatic events were eager to forget.
That’s why it’s so important to collect this little vial. Although, it’s small and assuming, the vial represents the boundless creativity, ingenuity and sheer hard work of scientists, medical practitioners, technicians and volunteers across the world who’ve researched, developed, tested and deployed a vaccine in record time.”
The museum worked closely with Dr Emily Lawson, CCO and vaccine lead for the NHS, and Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, to obtain the vial.
“As a scientist, who eagerly visited the science museum as a young girl I am delighted that these NHS and world-first items will be hosted here, rightly documenting the historic moment for generations to come,” said Dr Lawson.
“This is the biggest global health challenge in generations and Maggie aged 90 from Coventry getting the very first jab, and so kickstarting the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history marks a significant turning point in our fight against coronavirus.”
The exhibit is scheduled to open next month and will enable visitors to examine the vial, alongside other key objects from the history of vaccination.
Visitors will also be able to explore displays about other infectious diseases, such as the bubonic plague and polio, both of which led to previous pandemics.
The exhibit will be housed in ‘Medicine: The Wellcome Galleries’ - the largest gallery space dedicated to the history of medicine in the world.
It will join other medical artefacts, such as the lancets used in the first-ever vaccinations in 1796, as well as Fleming’s penicillin mould and the world's first MRI machine.
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