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American infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said he disagrees with the UK’s approach of delaying the second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
On Friday, Dr. Fauci told CNN that the United States would not follow in the UK’s footsteps and would follow instructions from Pfizer and BioNTech to administer the second dose of its vaccine three weeks after the first.
Despite protests from doctors, UK medical directors defended their plans this week to delay the second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to patients, meaning people would now wait up to 12 weeks. The change consists of prioritizing the administration of the first dose to more people.
Dr. Fauci told CNN: “We know from clinical trials that the optimal time is to administer it in one day and per [the Moderna jab which is also approved in the US] wait 28 days and Pfizer 21 days later. “He added that while there could be a” case “to extend the doses, he would not be in favor of doing so.
Pfizer and BioNTech also cautioned that the two doses were crucial to achieving maximum protection against Covid, saying they had no evidence that the first dose alone would protect patients after three weeks.
In the UK, the new measure will apply to people waiting to receive their second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine after January 4. Patients receiving the first injection of the recently approved AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine will also have to wait up to 12 weeks.
In a statement Thursday night, Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, and his counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland said they stood by their decision to delay a second dose to ensure more people could get their first as soon. as possible.
They said: “We have to follow public health principles and act quickly if we are to defeat this pandemic that is spreading in our communities, and we believe the public will understand us and thank us for this decisive action.”
