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But the decision has been debated in the medical community, and the president of the British Medical Association (BMA) urged ministers to follow “best practices” and reduce the wait time to six weeks for the vaccine developed by Pfizer. and BioNTech.
Pfizer / BioNTech recommend that the second dose take place 21 days after the first, and said there was no data to support a 12-week gap.
“What we are saying is that the UK should adopt this best practice based on international professional opinion,” BMA chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul told the BBC on Saturday. The organization sent a letter to UK chief medical officer Chris Whitty warning of the delay.
“Most of the countries in the world face challenges similar to those of the UK, having a limited supply of vaccines and also wanting to protect their populations as much as possible,” Nagpaul added. “No other nation has adopted the UK’s approach.”
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the BMA said the letter informed Whitty of “growing concern in the medical profession over the delay of the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as the UK strategy has become increasingly isolated from many other countries “.
The group told CNN it was also concerned about the availability of the vaccine in the coming weeks, saying its members believe that “given the unpredictability of supplies, there may be no guarantee that the second doses of Pfizer vaccine will be available in 12 weeks’ time. “
“The Association urges the (Chief Medical Officer) to urgently review the UK’s current position on second doses after 12 weeks,” they said.
Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle defended the plan, telling the BBC on Saturday that it was necessary to bring the virus under control.
“The more people there are protected against this virus, the less likely it is to gain the upper hand. Protecting more people is the right thing to do,” she said.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been in use in the UK since early December, when it became the first country in the world to approve it.
When Britain first announced its plans, Pfizer said it did not have data showing that a single dose of its vaccine would provide protection against the disease after more than 21 days.
“Pfizer and BioNTech’s Phase 3 study for the Covid-19 vaccine was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine on a 2-dose schedule, separated by 21 days,” Pfizer said in a statement last month. “There is no data to show that protection after the first dose is maintained after 21 days.”
But the chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland explained the move in a letter to healthcare professionals after the vaccine was approved, saying it was based on “the balance of risks and benefits”, and that the “vast majority” of initial protection came on the first try.
The debate comes as Covid-19 deaths skyrocket in the UK. As new cases are on the decline since Britain entered a third lockdown this month, the country reported its highest daily death rate on Wednesday, with 1,820 deaths, a total of 97 517, according to John Hopkins University.
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