The UK will focus on giving as many people as possible a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, even if the administration of a second one is delayed, the government said on Tuesday, despite a lack of information on the extent of immunity which provides a single dose.
The news comes as scientists in Europe are debating whether recipients should receive one dose instead of two, given the scarcity of the vaccine, the difficulty in averting a winter’s rise in infections and a rapidly rising death toll.
The problem: Although scientists believe that a single dose can provide sufficient immunity to stop the spread of the virus, there is not enough data to confirm this, as the clinical trials for available vaccines and those approaching authorizations are all designed to a two-dose regimen.
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Britain, which is under intense pressure amid the spread of a new, more contagious variant of the virus, is the first European government to change its policy. It emphasizes that recipients of vaccines would receive a second dose just three months later than planned.
Some provinces in Canada are delaying the second dose to vaccinate more people at the same time, and Belgium is considering a similar approach.
“The priority should be to give as many people in the risk groups their first dose, rather than giving the required doses within a short period of time,” said a spokesman for the UK Department of Health.
A vaccine made by Pfizer Inc.
and BioNTech SE was the first to be approved in the West. It is now being rolled out worldwide to emergency permits by various regulators based on a successful month-long trial, which involved giving two shots to more than 20,000 volunteers. The second injection was given 21 days after the first application.
While the trial data show that the vaccine gives more than 50% of the participants immunity after the first dose, the marketing of only one shot requires a new study in which only one dose is administered to another set of volunteers, BioNTech’s executive chief said. .Ahin.
“It could be that the next generation of the vaccine consists of only one dose,” said Dr. Sahin said.
While drug dealers distribute Covid-19 vaccines, cyber security experts warn against the growing threat of tampering and theft by organized crime networks.
He added that production bottlenecks mean that vaccines would not make the spread of the virus tangible for months, which means that social restrictions must remain in force.
“We need other vaccine manufacturers to get market approval next year, ideally in the first quarter … We simply need more companies to deliver more doses,” said Dr. Sahin said.
A vaccine developed by Moderna Inc.,
which was authorized in the USA and was given the green light by the European Regulator in January, also consists of two doses. A third vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca PLC and approved by the United Kingdom, also has two doses.
Proponents of a one-time approach say it may be the only way to vaccinate enough people to avoid a major increase in infections again next winter, due to limited availability.
EU governments have bought just enough Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to vaccinate 150 million people out of a total population of almost 450 million. This contingent will not be fully delivered until late next year.
Scientists are working at an incredible speed to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Their ultimate goal: to immunize enough of the world population to achieve herd immunity. (Originally published on July 24, 2020)
Most scientists agree that more than 60% of the population should be vaccinated to bring about herd immunity, in which enough people are immune, either by vaccination or by contracting the disease, to stop the spread of a pathogen .
In Belgium, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke has asked the country’s vaccination task force to investigate whether it should delay the administration of the second shot to give the first dose to a larger number of people faster.
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Pierre Van Damme, a senior member of the task force, said on Monday that the use of only one shot would make it possible to vaccinate the majority of Belgium’s 11.5 million residents before the summer. A government spokesman said a decision would be made in the next two weeks.
In Britain, Professor David Salisbury, who was previously responsible for the country’s vaccination program, tried to postpone the second shot until all high-risk people had the first dose. After two weeks of declining infections, new cases have increased sharply in the UK since early December.
On December 22, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Independent newspaper that continuing with the previously planned second-in-command schedule would have “colossal” damage in terms of infection rates, deaths and economic impact.
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