Covid-19: How Is Great Britain`s Vaccination Gamble Going?

(Drivebycuriosity) - It seems that Great Britain is gambling. The British started to vaccinate their population against Covid-19 like many other countries. But they have a different strategy. The US, the European Union and others follow the recommendations of the pharma companies and vaccinate people twice in a short time span. Pfizer-BioNTech recommends giving everyone 2 doses - the second 21 days after the first, Moderna recommends injecting the second dose 28 days after the first and Astra Zeneca talked about 6 weeks.

Contrary to the rest of the world, the British, who use Astra-Zeneca & Pfizer-BioNTech, practice a First-Dose-First strategy (F-D-F). They are delaying the second dose some months. This way they can vaccinate twice the number of people. The tables below show that the UK already dispensed 30 doses per 100 people and 29% of the British received  the first dose. The US injected 22 doses per 100 people and 15% received already the first dose. So, the UK vaccinated more than twice people per hundred so far.

 

 

 

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New findings support the British strategy. It turned out that AstraZeneca works better when the second dose is injected after three months (not just after four weeks spiegel.de). According to AstraZeneca a longer waiting time raises the efficacy by 80% (papers ). The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer & BioNTech generates robust immunity after one dose and can be stored in ordinary freezers instead of at ultracold temperatures, according to new research and data released by the companies (marginalrevolution).  A single shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 85% effective in preventing symptomatic disease 15 to 28 days after being administered, according to a peer-reviewed study conducted by the Israeli government-owned Sheba Medical Center and published in the Lancet medical journal.

The British strategy of F-D-F has another advantage. New mutations challenge the original vaccines which have been developed last year. The pharma firms are already working on advanced vaccines which should protect against new Covid-19 variants. British people, who will get the second dose later in some months, will then get newer and may better vaccines.

Britain wants to have offered all adults over the age of 50, its most vulnerable people and health workers a vaccination against COVID-19 by May ( reuters). Time will tell.