Thank goodness.
According to the BBC, it is a very different product from the Pfizer and Moderna ones:
"It is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. It has been modified to look more like coronavirus - although it can't cause illness.
When the vaccine is injected into a patient, it prompts the immune system to start making antibodies and primes it to attack any coronavirus infection."
It has some real benefits.
1. It's much cheaper [£3 per jab] and now about as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna versions [even the earlier 70% rate is more effective than a flu jab, but they seem to have figured how to raise the efficacy number higher].
2. The second jab can be done three months after the first, meaning you can get a whole bunch of more vulnerable people protected via a single jab before needing to double up.
3. The vaccine is stored using refrigeration and doesn't need the massive number of expensive lorries and freezers, as well as the narrow window for use following defrosting that the other vaccines require.
4. It can be produced in vast quantities: 3bn doses are expected in 2021.
In the UK, high risk groups will all have been vaccinated by the spring.
Apparently the UK has 30m doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 100m of the Oxford one either received or on order. Enough for 65m people (ie nearly everyone) and easily enough to reach herd immunity. And, thankfully, everyone can afford the jab [because it's free at the point of use].
Light at the end of the tunnel, at last.
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