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UK doctors are rejecting the government’s decision to postpone scheduled second COVID-19 injections for vulnerable people, calling it “grossly unfair” and predicting that the government’s plan will cause “huge logistical problems.”
In announcing the approval of a second vaccine, the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, on Wednesday, the government said it was also changing course in its vaccination strategy to prioritize as many vulnerable people as possible to receive a first dose.
Doctors have been instructed to delay patients’ second dose until 12 weeks after the first.
For many local practices, that means calling in thousands of seniors, who were due to receive their second dose of the BioNTech / Pfizer jab, at a time when health services are spreading from COVID-19, vaccinations and other winter illnesses. .
These patients whose second injections will be postponed “have the highest risk of death if they contract COVID-19,” said Richard Vautrey, chairman of the committee of general practitioners of the British Medical Association, adding that it was “manifestly and grossly unfair” to reprogram his equipment. .
It will also “cause huge logistical problems at almost all vaccination sites and practices,” Vautrey said.
Helen Salisbury, general practitioner and columnist for the British Medical Journal, tweeted it would take 193 hours to cancel and rebook your appointments.
“If GPs decide to keep these appointments booked in January, the BMA will support them,” Vautrey said.
The government said Wednesday that the measure, which follows the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), is based on data from clinical trials showing that vaccine recipients appear to acquire a strong degree of immunity after a single dose.
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