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LONDON (AP) – A major group of British doctors have said the UK government should ‘urgently review’ its decision to give people a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for up to 12 weeks after the first, rather than the shorter gap recommended by the manufacturer and the World Health Organization.
The United Kingdom, which is experiencing the deadliest coronavirus epidemic in Europe, has adopted the policy in order to quickly give as many people as possible a first dose of the vaccine. So far, nearly 5.5 million people have been injected either with a vaccine made by US drug maker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, or a vaccine developed by Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
AstraZeneca said he believes a first dose of his vaccine provides protection after 12 weeks, but Pfizer says he hasn’t tested his jab for effectiveness after such a long hiatus.
The British Medical Association on Saturday urged England’s chief medical officer to “urgently review the UK’s current position on second doses after 12 weeks.”
In a statement, the association said there was “growing concern from the medical profession over the delay of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with the UK strategy increasingly isolated from many others. country”.
“No other nation has adopted the UK’s approach,” BMA board chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul told the BBC.
He said the WHO had recommended that the second Pfizer vaccine could be given for up to six weeks after the first, but only “in exceptional circumstances.”
“I understand the compromise and the rationale, but if it was the right thing to do, we would see other nations follow suit,” Nagpaul said.
Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, defended the decision as “a reasonable scientific balance based on both the offer and the protection of most people”.
British researchers have started collecting blood samples from newly vaccinated people to study the number of antibodies they produce at different intervals, from 3 weeks to 24 months, to get an answer to the question of when is the best time for injections.
Doctors’ concerns emerged a day after government medical advisers said there was evidence that a new variant of the virus first identified in south-east England carried a greater risk. of deaths than the original strain.
Chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said Friday “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those with the new variant,” which is also more transmissible than the original virus. He said the new strain could be around 30% more deadly, but stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.
Search for UK scientists advising the government said that although initial scans suggested the strain did not cause more serious illness, several more recent ones suggest it could. However, the number of deaths is relatively low, and death rates are affected by many factors, including the care patients receive, their age and health, beyond COVID-19.
Britain has recorded 95,981 deaths among those who tested positive, the highest number of confirmed viruses in Europe.
The UK is on lockdown trying to slow the latest wave of the virus, and the government says the end of restrictions won’t come soon. Pubs, restaurants, gymnasiums, entertainment venues and many shops are closed and people are largely forced to stay at home.
The UK government is considering tightening quarantine requirements for people arriving from abroad. Travelers must already self-isolate for 10 days, but law enforcement is patchy. Authorities are considering requiring arrivals to stay in quarantine hotels, a practice adopted in other countries, including Australia.
“We may have to go further to protect our borders,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.
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Follow AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic on:
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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