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While delivering the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to as many people as possible remains vital to the country’s pandemic response, equal importance must be placed on ensuring that the second dose is delivered on time, said Dr Anthony Fauci.
His comments, which were made during the White House coronavirus briefing on Monday, come as many questioned whether the second, or so-called recall, could be delayed as the country faces supply issues. in vaccines.
While the Modern and Pfizer mRNA vaccines, which are currently approved in the United States, resulted in an above-threshold neutralizing antibody response after one dose, Fauci said, the second dose produced a 10-fold response.
“The reason that is important is not just the height of the response and the power of the response, but when you reach that level of antibody, you get a greater magnitude of response,” he said. “Through [the] the breadth of the response, we mean it covers not only the wild type and virus currently in circulation, but also the variants that we see circulating – especially 1.1.7 and 3.5.1, so this n It’s not just about power, it’s about how much you can cover. “
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He added that a “theoretical problem” that might be created by opting for a single dose of the two-dose vaccine is that if you have a suboptimal response rather than clearing the virus, you might “inadvertently select for. no more mutants. “
Some suggested studying whether the country could switch to a single-dose approach. While “it is not an unreasonable thing to suggest a study,” Fauci said, the “practicality” of one creates additional hurdles, he noted.
“If you look at the number of people that would be needed in a study to answer this question, again versus two, with the vaccines currently available, the time needed to get information on [the] Phase 3 and the number of people studying with all the answers needed would take several months [to get] a meaningful response, “he said.” At that point, the amount of vaccine that would be available would almost make this question a little moot. “
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Earlier in the briefing, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Rochelle Walensky, said nearly 700 cases of the British variant have been detected in 34 states. She said while the country saw a 20% drop in new cases last week compared to the previous week, the importance of implementing public health measures remains at an all time high.
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“We must continue to reduce these cases,” she said.
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