A healthcare worker receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a care home in Paris.
Photographer: Nathan Laine / Bloomberg
Photographer: Nathan Laine / Bloomberg
France’s top health authority is proposing a doubling of the time between two vaccine shots as a way to stretch supply and protect as many people as soon as possible amid a resurgence in Covid-19 emissions.
Taking the second injection six weeks after the first would allow at least 700,000 more people to be protected in the first month, the country’s Haute Autorite de Sante said in its reported Saturday. The advice is for the vaccine that did Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE as well as another one provided by Moderna Inc., he said.
“The risk of loss of effectiveness is likely to be limited” said the health body, noting that the regime recommended by the companies for a delay of three or four weeks between shots, but that protection from the virus start between 12 and 14 days after the first job.
The goal is to protect the largest number of vulnerable people and prevent the moorland system from overflowing, he said.
The French council is following guidance two days ago by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said follow-up doses could up to six weeks later if it is not possible to obtain them in the recommended interval.
The need for these second doses at certain times is one level of difficulty in vaccine campaigns spread across the globe. Recent rises in diseases and more brutal rays have put more pressure on countries to try dosing regimes to get more people the first of two looks to provide initial protection.
Britain has said it would allow second doses of some vaccines as much as 12 weeks after the first, longer than the period proven to be the best dose for both vaccines.
The French agency said it based its recommendation on models made by the French Institut Pasteur and U.S. and Canadian studies.
UK officials have said the data show that the authorized vaccines offer a lot of protection after a single dose, with the latter looking important over the long term. Both the company and the FDA have said it is unclear how long protection lasts at first glance. Pfizer stated that a second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine should be delivered to individuals within the recommended 21-day period.