LONDON (AP) – A major group of British doctors say the British government should “urgently review” the decision to give people a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine up to 12 weeks after the first, rather than the recommended short delay by the manufacturer and the World Health Organization.
The UK, which has the deadliest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, has adopted a policy to give as many people as possible a first dose of a quick vaccine. To date, almost 5.5 million people have received either a vaccine produced by either the American doctor Pfizer and the German company BioNTech, or one developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
AstraZeneca said it believes a first dose of the vaccine provides protection after 12 weeks, but Pfizer says it has not tested the effectiveness of its jab after such a long gap.
The British Medical Association on Saturday urged the chief physician of England to “urgently review the current position of the United Kingdom of the second dose after 12 weeks”.
In a statement, the association said there was “growing concern from the medical profession about the delay in the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as Britain’s strategy became increasingly isolated from many other countries.” .
“No other nation has taken the UK approach,” Chama Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA, told the BBC.
He said the WHO had recommended that the second Pfizer vaccine be given up to six weeks after the first, but only “under exceptional circumstances”.
“I understand the compromise and the reason, but if this is what needs to be done, we would see other nations following suit,” Nagpaul said.
Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, defended the decision as “a reasonable scientific balance based on both supply and the protection of most people.”
Researchers in the UK have begun collecting blood samples from newly vaccinated people to study how many antibodies they produce at different intervals, from 3 weeks to 24 months, to get an answer to the question of when is the best time for photos. .
Doctors’ concerns came a day after government health advisers said there was evidence that a new variant of the virus first identified in the south-east of England had a higher risk of death than the original strain.
Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said on Friday “that there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those with the new variant”, which is also more transmissible than the original virus. He said the new strain could be about 30 percent more deadly, but stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and that more research is needed.
Research by British scientists advising the government said, although initial analyzes suggested the strain did not cause more severe disease, several of the most recent suggest it could. However, the number of deaths is relatively small, and death rates are affected by many things, including the care patients receive and their age and health, beyond having COVID-19.
The UK recorded 95,981 deaths among people who tested positive, the highest number of confirmed viruses in Europe.
Britain is in a deadlock to try to slow the latest rise in the virus, and the government says the end of restrictions will not come soon. Bars, restaurants, gyms, entertainment venues and many shops are closed, and people have to stay mostly at home.
The British government is considering tightening quarantine requirements for people arriving from abroad. Travelers already have to isolate themselves for 10 days, but the application is uneven. Authorities are considering requiring arrivals to stay in quarantine hotels, a practice adopted in other countries, including Australia.
“We may have to move forward to protect our borders,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.
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