(Reuters) – The United States must stick to a two-dose strategy for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Modern COVID-19 vaccines, US Top Official Anthony Fauci told the Washington Post.
Fauci said it poses a risk of delaying a second dose to vaccinate more Americans.
He warned that the shift to a single-dose strategy for the vaccines could leave people less protected, and that variants could spread and potentially increase skepticism among Americans who are already reluctant to get the shots.
“There are risks on both sides,” Fauci was quoted as saying by the Washington Post in a report published late Monday.
“We tell people (two shots) is what you have to do … and then we say, ‘Oops, we changed our minds’?” Fauci said. “I think it’s going to be a message challenge, to say the least. say.’
He added that he had spoken to British health officials on Monday who had chosen to delay second doses to give maximum shots faster. Fauci said the strategy would not make sense in the United States.
He said science does not support a second dose delay for the vaccines, citing a two-shot regimen that provides adequate protection to prevent the more transmissible variants of the coronavirus, while Americans could pose a danger of variants. . such as the one first detected in South Africa.
“You do not know how durable the protection is,” he said.
Fauci said Sunday he encourages Americans to accept any of the three available COVID-19 vaccines, including the newly approved Johnson & Johnson shot.
The US government on Saturday approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, making it the third available in the country, following that of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna requiring two doses.
COVID-19 has claimed more than half a million people in the United States, and states want more doses to prevent cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Edited by Himani Sarkar and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)