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The coronavirus vaccine has been available in Germany for almost a week, but given the relatively small number of vaccines currently available, the question is how to proceed. A sensible way to vaccinate as many people as possible as soon as possible would be to postpone the repeat vaccination time, experts say.
“Since the time between the two vaccinations can probably vary within certain limits and since the protection is very good even after the first vaccination, it is worth considering, given that there is a shortage of vaccines, whether it can be administered initially alone.” said Thomas Mertens, chairman of the Robert Koch Institute’s Standing Committee on Vaccines (Stiko) on RTL.
Infectious disease specialist Hendrik Streek, a professor at the University of Bonn, made a similar statement to RTL. “The data show that more than half of those vaccinated were already adequately protected after the first vaccination. So if they do the second vaccine later, we can really double the number of people vaccinated with the first available batches. But first there must be a discussion about this. “It is not an easy decision, but it would be a way to vaccinate more people quickly.”
Many UK experts have hailed the decision as a sensible approach to tackling the vaccine shortage. However, they also noted that effectiveness is lower after the first dose and it remains to be seen in practice whether this vaccination strategy actually works.
On Wednesday, however, Britain approved the vaccine from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca and the University of Oxford as the second vaccine after Biontech / Pfizer, which it had approved. At the same time, the committee recommended that as many people as possible be given only the first dose of both vaccines, while the second dose should be given within twelve instead of the originally planned two to four weeks.
Peter Kremser, director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Tippingen University, believes that the British approach is essentially very logical. “If the effect of the first vaccination does not diminish rapidly over time, the second vaccine could also be given later, for example after six months, but we still don’t know.” But this is also done with other vaccines, “he told RTL.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
