Early on during the pandemic, the UK government took the decision to give second doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine after 12 weeks rather than the recommended 3-4 weeks. It has now reduced the gap to 8 weeks and is considering reducing the gap to 3-4 weeks. What are the arguments in favour of reducing the gap between doses to 3-4 weeks?<\/p>\n
1. Giving the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine 3-4 weeks apart is in line with the manufacturer\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n
2. This is what most other countries using the Pfizer vaccine are doing.<\/p>\n
3. Evidence from randomised controlled trials and subsequent evidence from real-world data provides strong evidence that two doses of Pfizer vaccine given 3-4 weeks apart provide excellent protection against severe disease and death<\/p>\n
4. Data from Public Health England shows that two doses of vaccine provide much better protection against the delta variant than one dose. Hence, giving second doses after 3-4 weeks instead of after 8-12 weeks could help reduce the current ratee of infection in the UK<\/p>\n
5. Many people are keen to get their second dose of Pfizer vaccine quickly because of concerns about other family members or to help them travel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Early on during the pandemic, the UK government took the decision to give second doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine after 12 weeks rather than the recommended 3-4 weeks. It has now reduced the gap to 8 weeks and is considering reducing the gap to 3-4 weeks. What are the arguments in favour of reducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296231,404],"tags":[269809],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-health","tag-vaccination"],"yoast_head":"\n