“My view is that the weight of the evidence suggests that we would probably save more lives by delaying second doses than by insisting on the schedule tested in the trials,” he said.
However, not all experts agree that changing dosing schedules is a good idea.
“Secondly, we really do not know if you will delay the second dose for long,” he said. In other words, there is not much research since Covid-19 vaccines have only recently been developed.
While debates over the postponement of the second doses continue in the United States, a slow rollout of vaccines, more deaths with Covid-19 and the spread of newly identified coronavirus variants that appear more transmissible.
Getting second doses is a priority, but ‘there is some room for maneuver’
It is still recommended that people get their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine on time, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday during a virtual information session in the White House.
“Until we have further data,” Walensky said, “people should continue to follow the data of trials by continuing the schedule of two doses 21 days apart for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 28 days apart for the Modern. vaccine. These are the two vaccines currently allowed for emergency use in the United States.
“The policy is that we definitely want everyone who gets a first dose to get their second dose,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during Monday’s briefing.
But also on Monday, during a meeting of the International AIDS Society, Fauci said that if there are only a few weeks too late, there is no cause for concern. “There’s some wrapping room,” he said. “It’s not the end of the world if you delay it a little bit. If you want to delay it by six months, it’s different.”
If the second doses are delayed, it is in violation of the vaccination schedules approved under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
CNN confirmed with the FDA in January that if a manufacturer requests a change in its emergency use authorization, the manufacturer must submit data to the FDA that supports the requested change.
Some experts argue that there is evidence to support a possible change.
‘We need to have a thorough overview and discussion of this’
Lipsitch of Harvard University is in favor of distributing the vaccine dose in a larger population, rather than doubling the dose for half the population. “If you can get at least half the benefit, it’s better to spread it out,” he said.
For the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, called BNT162b2, the data indicate that the vaccine has 52% efficacy after only one dose and then provides 95% protection against Covid-19 after two doses.
But trials have not been conducted to test single doses of mRNA vaccines.
“At this point, everything we know about vaccines suggests that protection can actually be improved by giving a booster a few months after the first dose,” said Osterholm, a coronavirus consultant for the Biden Transition Team.
The researchers assumed: “Assume that 1 million people need to be vaccinated, but that there are only 1 million doses available. If two doses are given to each vaccine and its effectiveness is 95%, 475,000 people will be protected. If single doses are given and the efficiency is 80%, 800 000 people will be protected. ‘
“We need to have a thorough review and discussion of this as soon as possible, because you know that this new variant B.1.1.7 could cause an increase in our cases within a few weeks,” Osterholm said. He described the rise of these variants as similar to a hurricane approaching the horizon.
“I feel like I’m sitting here on a beautiful beach – the light breeze, perfect blue sky and all – and I tell them to start evacuating. People say, ‘Are you crazy?’ “But I see that there is a category five hurricane 450 kilometers south,” Osterholm said. “That is the challenge. How do you get people into action? ”
However, other experts argue that the risk that you may be fed longer between diagnoses is more sensitive to the new coronavirus and its variants.
Overall, Fauci said Monday that getting vaccinated against Covid-19 could prevent more coronavirus variants from popping up in the future.
“You need to be vaccinated when it is available as quickly and as quickly as possible,” Fauci said during the White House letter Monday, adding that viruses cannot mutate if they do not recur.
White House is concerned about providing doses
The Biden administration on Monday expressed concern that healthcare providers could essentially store Covid-19 vaccine doses for second shots that could be administered for initial shots.
CDC data show that about 26 million people have received at least one dose so far – but almost 6 million have received their two doses.
“On January 20, states administered 46% of their inventory. That is 62% today. We are focused on it every hour every day,” Slavitt said Monday.
Slavitt suggested that patients’ appointments for a first dose be canceled in some cases, and insisted that it was urgently necessary to take out first doses as soon as possible. He said the government wanted to take a look at the planning of vaccines for three weeks last week, to allay concerns that the second doses could be withheld.
CNN’s Jen Christensen, Amanda Sealy, Michael Nedelman and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.