Could other nations adopt 12-week vaccine gap?
Philippa Roxby
Health reporter, BBC News
Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images
Earlier we told you how a professor has defended the policy being adopted in the UK for a leaving a gap of up to 12 weeks between the first and second doses of the Covid vaccines.
Professor Adam Finn, a member of the government’s committee on vaccine strategy, has said this is based on “rock-solid evidence”.
Speaking in a personal capacity to the BBC Today programme, he said doubling the number of people who are being protected in the short term, by giving them a first dose, would save more lives.
Prof Finn also said he expected to see the impact of the current dosing strategy in the numbers admitted to hospital by the end of this week.
At the weekend, the union representing doctors, the BMA, said the gap between doses for the Pfizer jab should be shortened to six weeks.
But Prof Finn said based on knowledge of how other vaccines work, there is likely to be better protection after the second dose when it’s delayed.
The UK may be an outlier in the way it’s organised the vaccine rollout, with the World Health Organization saying it would recommend a six-week gap between doses in extreme circumstances only, but it is possible other countries could follow suit if the data backs up the current strategy.