January 5th – Many European countries have started the vaccination of the novel coronavirus vaccine, but the supply of vaccines has been insufficient one after another.
The British government recently decided to extend the interval between the second doses of Pfizer vaccine, up to 12 weeks between the two doses, far exceeding the three weeks set.
Germany and Denmark are weighing whether to follow the British plan and delay the injection of a second dose of vaccine to the population to further alleviate the tight supply.
According to Reuters on the 5th, the German Ministry of Health is consulting the Robert Koch Institute, a German disease prevention and control agency, on the 4th to decide whether to postpone the second dose of the vaccine to six weeks later.
Leif Erik Sander, head of the vaccine research team at Charite Hospital in Germany, said that given the current scarcity of vaccines and the high number of infections and hospitalizations nationwide, the strategy of getting as many people as early as possible can be vaccinated with the first dose of vaccine. It can be more effective.
In addition to Germany, Denmark is also considering implementing this plan. The Danish Institute of Infectious Diseases said on the 4th that it would closely monitor the situation in the UK and approve a six-week delay in the first and second vaccinations.
After careful verification of vaccine data, Soren Brostrom, the Danish Health Agency, said that a maximum of six weeks of waiting will be allowed before a second dose of the vaccine will be allowed.
It is reported that Pfizer vaccine has short-term efficacy. It is the only vaccine approved by the European Drug Administration (EMA) so far, with a 90% protection effect.
However, European Drug Administration officials said that the maximum interval between the first and second injections of Pfizer vaccine is 42 days, and the interval between two doses should not exceed six weeks to obtain adequate protection.
According to the British Guardian earlier, the British government recently decided to postpone the injection of the second dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer in cooperation with the German biotechnology company, with up to 12 weeks apart from the two doses, far more than the three weeks set.
The British government said that this was to get the first dose of vaccine for as many people at high risk as possible. In response, several British medical associations have pointed out that the decision “completely fails to follow science”.
