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LONDON – The British health chief has hailed a new study suggesting that a single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine provides a high level of protection for 12 weeks, saying he supports the government’s controversial strategy of delaying the second vaccine so that it can protect more people quickly with a first dose.
Britain’s move has been criticized as risky by other European countries, but Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Wednesday that the study “supports the strategy we have adopted and shows the world that the Oxford vaccine works effectively.
Hancock’s comments came after the University of Oxford published a study showing that the vaccine reduced transmission of the virus by two-thirds and prevented serious illness.
Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceutical research and development at AstraZeneca, said no patient had severe Covid-19 or had to be hospitalized three weeks after receiving a first dose, and that efficacy appeared to increase for up to 12 weeks after the initial shot.
“Our data suggests that you want to be as close to 12 weeks as possible” for the second dose, Pangalos said at a press conference.
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The study has not yet been peer reviewed and did not address the dosage of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the other currently in use in the UK Pfizer recommends that its injections be given to 21 days apart and did not approve the UK government’s decision. to lengthen the time between doses.
But Oxford’s research was greeted with enthusiasm by British officials under pressure to justify their decision to delay the second dose.
“This reduction in transmission, along with the fact that there is no hospitalization, the combination of all of that is very good news. And that categorically supports the strategy we’ve taken to have a 12 week gap between doses, ”Hancock told Sky News.
Some countries, including France, have authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine only for use in people under the age of 65, saying there is not enough evidence to say whether it works in the elderly. Belgium only allowed it for people aged 55 and under.
Still, one of the Oxford Vaccine Project lead researchers, Dr Andrew Pollard, said: “We expect it to be very effective in the elderly” and said more data should be available in the elderly. the next weeks.
Pangalos noted that the European Medicines Agency has authorized the use of the vaccine in all people over 18.
“How each country decides to implement vaccines is ultimately up to them depending on the vaccine stocks they have,” he said.
The supply of vaccines is a sensitive issue in the European Union, which laments that AstraZeneca has reduced the number of doses it plans to supply to the EU in the short term. The company said last month that it plans to cut initial deliveries within the EU from 80 million doses to 31 million doses due to reduced yields at its manufacturing plants in Europe.
He has since called for an additional 9 million doses to be delivered to the bloc of 27 nations, whose leaders face criticism over what is perceived to be slowness in inoculating the population.
Britain has the deadliest coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with more than 108,000 deaths, and is in its third national lockdown as authorities attempt to contain a new, more transmissible variant of the virus first identified in the south-east of England.
Other variations are also of concern. Public health officials in England are going door to door, trying to test all adults in eight targeted communities in a bid to prevent a new strain first identified in South Africa from spreading.
So far 105 cases of the variant have been identified in the UK, including 11 in people unrelated to overseas travel. Scientists say there is no evidence that the South African variant is more serious than the original virus, but that it may be more contagious. There is also concern that current vaccines may be less effective against this variant because it contains a spike protein mutation characteristic of the virus targeted by existing vaccines.
It’s a concern as the UK rushes to vaccinate its own population against the virus. Nearly 10 million people have received the first of their two vaccines, the majority of whom are over 80 and in nursing homes.
Pollard said scientists at Oxford believe the AstraZeneca vaccine will continue to provide protection against newer variants of COVID-19, although they are still awaiting data on this.
He said that even if the virus adapts, “that doesn’t mean we won’t have protection against serious illnesses yet.”
“If we need to update the vaccines, it’s actually a relatively straightforward process. It only takes a few months, rather than the tremendous efforts everyone made last year to get the trials on a massive scale, ”he told the BBC.
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