His comments were echoed by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, who said that the first dose of the Pfizer and Astrazeneca jabs seemed to provide the majority of protection against covid-19 .
A second injection, he said, would increase that protection and apparently extend the duration of a person having high levels of immunity against the disease.
Defending the decision to extend the interval between doses, he said it was better to provide a greater level of protection for more people against the disease than to aim for a smaller group. of protection.
“With the relatively simple mathematical process, you can imagine if a vaccine is more than 50 per cent effective, if you then double the number of people who have been vaccinated over this very dangerous period, with a lot of viruses circulating, you are totally going to benefit greatly, ”he continued.
“By doing this longer interval many more people will receive… twice the number of vaccines that provide most of the protection. That is why we are doing it. “