LONDON (Reuters) – A group of British doctors has written to England’s chief medical officer to tell him to cut the gap between doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine to six weeks from up to 12.
Britain prioritises the administration of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, allowing up to 12 weeks before the second dose, to give the maximum number of people the initial protection.
But Pfizer and BioNTech have warned that they have no evidence that their vaccine would be immune if the second dose is given more than 21 days after the first.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said in an emailed statement on Saturday that it has written to Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England Chris Whitty.
The BMA said it supports giving a second dose up to 42 days after the first dose, but that there is no longer a gap according to World Health Organization guidelines.
They therefore urged the CMO to “urgently review the current UK situation for a second dose after 12 weeks”.
“The UK’s strategy has become more isolated from many other countries,” the BMA said.
“BMA members are also concerned that with the volatility of supply, there may be no guarantees that second doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be available in 12 weeks.”
Whitty said at a media conference on Friday that the longest gap between doses aimed at vaccinating many more people was a “public health decision” and was based on the belief that most protection comes from the first injection.
Britain uses two vaccines, one from Pfizer and the other from AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca has backed the gap between its jobs, saying data showed an 8-12 week gap was a “sweet spot” for efficiency.
The Department of Health and Social Care said in an emailed statement that its priority was to protect as many people as possible as soon as possible.
“The decision … to change vaccine dosage times came after a thorough analysis of the data and was in line with the recommendations of four top UK medical officials,” a DHSC spokesperson said.
Some 5.38 million people received the first dose of vaccine in the UK, government data showed.
Reporting by Sarah Young; edited by Jason Neely