By Sarah Young
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s COVID-19 vaccination pressure has accelerated on Saturday, with 5.9 million people now taking a first dose, but doctors have challenged the government over its policy of taking a second Pfizer vaccine to delay up to 12 weeks.
The British government is widening the gap between first and second shots, as it seeks to ensure that as many people as possible can get some protection against an initial dose of vaccination.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned on Friday that the new UK variant of COVID-19 could be associated with a higher level of mortality as the country’s death toll from COVID-19 reaches the 100,000 mark – 97,329 on Saturday.
But in a letter to Chris Whitty, chief medical officer (CMO) for England, the British Medical Association said the leave of the Pfizer vaccine for the twelve-week period was contrary to the guidance of the World Health Organization.
They urged the government to reduce the gap between the doses of Pfizer to a maximum of six weeks.
The manufacturers of the vaccine, Pfizer and BioNTech, have warned that they have no evidence that their vaccine will still be protective if the second dose is given more than three weeks after the first dose.
If you leave a twelve-week gap, Britain’s vaccination program can continue quickly.
Government data released on Saturday showed that 5.86 million people have now received a first dose of the vaccine, after hitting a record 478,248 people in the past 24 hours.
Whitty said Friday that the longer wait between doses was a ‘public health decision’ aimed at vaccinating many more people, and based on the fact that the vast majority of protection is first-time.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the decision on the 12-week gap was taken after a thorough review of the data and was in line with the recommendations of the four UK chief medical officers.
Britain uses the Pfizer vaccine and another AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca supported the gap between its sites and said that a gap of 8 to 12 weeks is a ‘nice place’ for efficiency.
Following Johnson’s warnings about the deadlier nature of the new variant, some scientists said Saturday it was too soon to be clear on what the evidence showed.
“The question of whether it is more dangerous in terms of mortality, I think is still open,” Graham Medley, professor of modeling of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told the BBC.
(Edited by Jason Neely and Helen Popper)