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Pfizer and AstraZeneca have dismissed government warnings about vaccine supply gaps for months, claiming there will be enough doses to meet the country’s ambitious goals.
England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned this week that vaccine availability issues “will remain the case for several months” as companies struggle to keep up with global demand.
In an attempt to ration supplies, the government has pledged to give single doses of the Pfizer vaccine to as many people as possible, rather than giving a second dose to those already vaccinated.
But the makers of the Pfizer and Oxford / AstraZeneca jabs have dismissed the concerns, saying there is no problem with the supply.
His intervention came after another 53,285 people tested positive in Britain on Friday, marking four days in a row with more than 50,000 positive tests announced.
And 613 more people have died from the virus, including an eight-year-old boy, bringing the official death toll to 74,125.
The eight-year-old boy died in England on December 30 and had other health problems, the NHS said.
At least one million doses of Pfizer and about 530,000 doses of Oxford are likely to be administered to patients across the country next week, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Earlier this month, AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot promised that the company will be able to deliver two million doses a week by mid-January, which means 24 million could be immunized by Easter.
Vaccine companies have rejected government warnings of months-long jab supply gaps, claiming there will be enough doses to meet the government’s ambition targets (file image)
Margaret Keenan returned to the hospital this week for her second round of the Covid-19 vaccine, but thousands of other patients will see their appointments delayed under a new scheme aimed at getting more people to get their first dose.
The intervention by the developers of the only two Covid vaccines approved in the UK came amid a dispute over the ministers’ decision to ration vaccine supplies.
Officials have said patients who have already received one dose of the vaccine should postpone the second, which they were told they would receive three weeks later, up to 12 weeks.
In a statement published late Thursday, UK medical directors said the decision had been made on a “balance of risks and benefits.”
The medical officers are Professor Whitty (England), Dr. Frank Atherton (Wales), Dr. Gregor Smith (Scotland) and Dr. Michael McBride (Northern Ireland).
They said, ‘We have to make sure we maximize the number of eligible people who get the vaccine.
“Currently, the main barrier to this is the availability of vaccines, a global problem, and this will continue to be the case for several months and more importantly during the critical winter period.
The availability of the AZ vaccine [Oxford/AstraZeneca] reduces, but does not eliminate, this great problem. The vaccine shortage is a reality that cannot be ruled out ”.
And they said there is no reason to suggest that vaccines will be less effective if doses are given farther apart than intended.
The report added: ‘With most vaccines, a prolonged interval between the booster dose and the booster dose leads to a better immune response to the booster dose.
“There is evidence that a longer interval between the first and second doses promotes a stronger immune response with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“There is currently no strong evidence to expect that the immune response of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will differ substantially from the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.”
But doctors have rebelled and said they will not deny vulnerable patients the vaccines they were promised amid concerns that the injections will not work as well with a single dose.
GPs criticized the policy as “ extremely unfair ” and frustrated scientists warned that clinical trials of the vaccine only tested how well it worked with a three-week interval, so there is no evidence that the new regimen it works long term.
However, experts backing the policy change have responded, saying that every second dose given is one more person missing the first life-saving vaccine.
Former Health Department head of vaccination, Professor David Salisbury, said: “ Every time we administer a second dose at this time, we are hiding it from someone who will likely, if contracted coronavirus, die.
The government has yet to establish whether there will be penalties for doctors who refuse to switch to the single-dose policy, and one doctor said he had been told by NHS chiefs to use ‘clinical judgment’.
Margaret Keenan, the first person in the world to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, received her second puncture earlier this week.
But thousands more in Britain will have their second appointment delayed so that the NHS can focus on hitting more people.
A total of 944,539 people across the UK had received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by December 27, according to the Department of Health.
The Hospital Specialists and Consultants Association (HCSA) warned that the “ill-thought-out” plan to delay the second dose would leave many vulnerable employees in limbo.
GPs working for the Black Country and West Birmingham NHS boards, as well as a doctor in Oxford, said they would honor the commitments they had made to patients.
No10 has pinned its hopes on the Oxford vaccine, which was approved this week, finally ending the perpetual cycle of open and close, which has devastated the economy and healthcare in general.
But life is unlikely to return to normal by Easter, even if 24 million people are vaccinated, because two-thirds of the population will remain vulnerable to the disease.
Scientists say that herd immunity, when a sufficient population becomes immune and the virus disappears, will only be achieved when 70 percent of people are protected. Some experts in the United States have warned that the figure could reach 90 percent.
