UK medical officials have defended the decision to delay the second dose of Pfizer / BioNTech to prioritize the first dose, saying it would protect as many vulnerable people as possible while the coronavirus progressed.
The new strategy, announced on Wednesday by the UK’s chief medical officer MHRA, states that the interval between jabs can be extended to 12 weeks, instead of the previously set three weeks.
What Are The Experts Saying?
It has sparked controversy among experts, with the British Medical Association (BMA), a representative body of UK doctors, criticizing the postponement of appointments of high-risk patients currently awaiting their second shot.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been in use in the UK since early December, when the country became the first in the world to approve it, but supply is limited.
The debate over vaccination comes as the infection rate rises sharply in the UK, thanks in part to some of the newest viral infections. The majority of England are now below the extremely high level of restrictions in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus.
“This group of elderly patients are at greater risk of dying if they receive Covid-19, which is why health care professionals are so concerned. That is not happening and it is not right for our high-risk patients to try to reorganize their care,” he said. Richard Vautrey, chairman of the BMA General Practitioners Committee, said in a statement Thursday.
The Doctors’ Association UK also raised “genuine and serious concerns” about the new vaccination plan, warning Friday it could undermine the National Health Service’s patient admission process, “and a complete failure to follow science.”
Pfizer And BioNTech
Meanwhile, Pfizer said it had no data showing that just one dose of the vaccine would provide protection against the disease after more than 21 days.
“Pfizer and BioNTech’s Phase 3 study of the Covid-19 vaccine was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the drug following a two-drug regimen, divided into 21 days,” Pfizer said in a statement Thursday. “There are no data showing that protection after receiving the first dose after 21 days.”
But medical authorities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland defended the move in a letter to health workers published Thursday, saying it was based on “risk and benefit ratings,” and that “the majority” of the first defense came from the first jab.
“The second dose of vaccine is probably the most important period of protection, and at the right time can increase the effectiveness of the vaccine,” they said.
“In the short term, an additional increase in drug effectiveness from the second dose may be modest; most of the initial immunity to treatment is after the first dose of vaccine.”
‘Negative Impact’
The BMA warned in its statement that delays could have a “negative impact on the emotional well-being” of high-risk and high-risk patients.
“The BMA believes that these are patients who have already been promised, by the NHS and local doctors, that they will receive a second dose of Pfizer vaccine next week; give their consent and, appropriately, expect it,” the BMA said.
Vautrey, chairman of the BMA, told CNN media on Friday that health workers were very concerned about “doing this so quickly,” without the warning given to workers on this revised guideline.
“We were only told on the last day that it was expected that, next Monday, we would change all the appointments we made next week … it was not just that our staff did that in a short period of time,” Vautrey said.
“We wanted to make a commitment to our older patients to give them their goal to be respected, indeed in the next few days.”
Helen Salisbury, a general practitioner in the English city of Oxford, told the BBC’s Friday program that her actions had not yet canceled a second appointment. This is because, firstly, he was unable to obtain any information about the immune system after the first dose more than 21 days when the booster was given to the trial, and secondly, because the practice sought to protect its most vulnerable patients, the elderly, and maintain their reliance on vaccines.
“Once you have started a patient with treatment and you have said, this is the program, here is one jab, please come back in three weeks, it is very important that you have a second jab that will be completely protected – then turn back after 5 minutes and say no, don’t worry, you can get it in weeks. 12 than three weeks – I don’t think that’s enough, he actually said.
In their letter, senior medical officials said they were aware of the complexity of the operation and the potential for complications involving rescheduling a second appointment in the short term.
However, we all know that for every 1,000 people raised with a second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in January (who will receive less protection against serious illnesses), 1,000 young people will not be able to get first-line protection in most cases. -0% are at least 70% protected, “they said.
Pfizer said it had never reviewed the various evaluation schedules because “the majority of trial participants found a second dose within the window specified in the study design.”
In its open letter, the Doctors’ Association UK wrote: “The protection provided by the first dose of Pfizer vaccine is very small by 52.4% compared to 95% when two doses are given for three different weeks.”
Vautrey told CNN that greater guarantees will be needed from both UK medical officials and Pfizer to give health care professionals and patients hope of a government plan.
“We need Pfizer himself to ensure that this new volume delivery law will bring effective protection and security to our patients, especially our high-risk patients,” Vautrey said.
UK regulators are also advising on providing a second dose of the recently approved Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, which is to be released from Monday, four to 12 weeks later.
Vaccine Roll out In The US
A plan to extend the time between first and second vaccines is also being considered in the United States, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Anthony Lucuci said on Thursday.
Two vaccines have now been approved for use in the US, Pfizer / BioNTech shot and one developed by Moderna, which requires a second dose 28 days later.
“I still think that, if done right, you can make one dose, keep the second dose, and then do the job,” Fauci told NBC’s Today Show, “but there’s a lot of discussion about how I want to spread the first goal by vaccinating more people in the first round.
Fauci said it could be discussed in any way, but the potential problem could be if one did not receive a second dose at a time and there was time left.
He said it was known from clinical trials that “the best time to give it one day and then Moderna after 28 days and Pfizer after 21 days, is what the data tells us is the best way to do it.”
If you want to stick to the data, this is how it should be done, he said, “but you can argue, and some people, about stretching the dose by giving one dose to the board and hoping I’ll get a second dose at the time it will be given to individuals.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote a hopeful note on the goals while talking about New Year’s Eve.
“We have a difficult struggle that has been waiting for us for weeks and months because we are facing a new kind of disease that needs new vigilance,” he said.
“But as the sun rises tomorrow in 2021, we are confident of those vaccines. I believe that the year 2021, above all, is the year when we will finally do those daily things that seem lost in the past, bathed in the bright light of longing – going to the bar, concerts , theaters, restaurants, or simply holding hands with loved ones in a normal way. “
