American infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci said he did not agree with the UK’s approach to postponing the second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
On Friday, Dr. Fauci told CNN that the United States would not follow in the United Kingdom’s footsteps and would follow Pfizer and BioNTech’s directions for administering the second dose of its vaccine three weeks after the first.
Despite doctors’ outcry, UK medical directors defended their plans this week to postpone the second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to patients, meaning people would now wait up to 12 weeks. The change is to prioritize giving more people the first dose.
Dr. Fauci told CNN: “We know from clinical trials that the best time is to administer it in one day and for [the Moderna jab which is also approved in the US] wait 28 days and Pfizer 21 days later. ”He added that although you can“ argue ”to extend the doses, he would not be in favor of doing so.
Pfizer and BioNTech also warned that the two doses were crucial to achieving maximum protection against Covid, saying there was no evidence that the first dose alone would protect patients after three weeks.
In the UK, the new measure will apply to people who expected to receive their second dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine after January 4. Patients who receive their first injection of the newly approved AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine will also have to wait up to 12 weeks.
In a statement late on Thursday, Chris Whitty, the medical director of England, and his colleagues in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, said they maintained their decision to postpone a second dose to ensure that more people could receive your first as soon as possible.
They said: “We must follow public health principles and act quickly if we are to overcome this pandemic that is spreading wildly in our communities, and we believe that the public will understand and thank us for this decisive action.”