As Biden promises to hurry vaccines, a U.K. experiment could be a test case

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Sat, 2021-01-09 18:47 — mike kraft

As Biden promises to hurry vaccines, a U.K. experiment could be a test case Beset by a highly transmissible coronavirus variant, Britain extends the waiting period between doses to 84 days in a bid to offer more people at least some protection. William Booth Washington Post

LONDON — Faced with soaring hospitalizations and deaths, Britain is launching a daring campaign to combat a ferociously infectious variant of the coronavirus by spacing the first and second doses of approved vaccines out over months instead of weeks.

The full vaccine deployment plan will be published by the government Monday, but the difficult decision to alter the recommended vaccination schedules will apply to the entire population, including the elderly and health-care workers.

Without enough doses immediately available, public health officials are betting that crucial second injections of two approved vaccines can be pushed back from their recommended waiting intervals — 21 days for Pfizer and 28 days for AstraZeneca — to 84 days for both.

The government’s science advisers say there is little choice, given the explosion in cases, even as they acknowledge that delaying the second dose involves risk. Clinical trials did not test the efficacy of the vaccines when administered on such an elongated schedule.

When Britain first proposed a three-month wait between doses, scientists in the United States, Europe and at the World Health Organization sounded dubious.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier this week said it would be “premature” and “not rooted solidly in the available evidence” to change the way the two authorized vaccines are administered.

On Friday, a spokesman for President-elect Joe Biden said the incoming administration will release nearly every available dose of vaccine in the United States after Biden takes office Jan. 20 to get supplies quickly out to the states. The move marks a switch from the current policy of holding back half to ensure second doses are available to those who have received a first dose.

Limited data suggests a single shot of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines affords some protection against disease. ...nd efficacy of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine

But it is not known how long the protection lasts. ...

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