How defensible are the British government’s new guidelines on the Pfizer vaccine?
1 Q: How defensible are the British Government’s new guidelines on the Pfizer Vaccine?
2 Background A British pressure group, The world’s platform for change is running a lobby to change the mistaken UK Government change in the Pfizer Covid-19 infection procedures. I think the Pfizer comments deserve the widest possible circulation, so I have copied these into the Answer below in the public interest.
2.1 Pfizer has criticised the UK’s decision to lengthen the gap between doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, saying the “safety and efficacy” of the new schedule has not been evaluated.
Although partial protection through the vaccine appears to begin as early as 12 days after the first jab, Pfizer stressed that two doses were required to provide the maximum protection against the disease, with an efficacy figure of 95 per cent. Crucially, it said: “There are no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days.”
2.2 What does the science say? We don’t know… there is no transparency, data has not been published. There is NO EVIDENCE MOVING TO 12 weeks will give sufficient cover.
2.3 The rare intervention by the US pharma company came amid growing controversy over the move, with doctors complaining that they were having to cancel appointments and reassure anxious patients who had previously been told they needed the second dose to keep them safe. “[Our] study . . . was designed to evaluate the vaccine’s safety and efficacy following a two-dose schedule, separated by 21 days,” the company said.
2.4 Pfizer continued: “The safety and efficacy of the vaccine has not been evaluated on different dosing schedules as the majority of trial participants received the second dose within the window specified in the study design.”
2.5 The new dosing guidelines, approved by the UK’s joint committee on vaccination and immunisation and unveiled on Wednesday (30th December), allow the second dose of both the vaccine that Pfizer developed with BioNTech, and the newly approved Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, to be delivered as much as three months after the first.
3 Conclusions of the The world’s platform for change campaign demands:
3.1 “1 WE WANT THE U.K. GOVERNMENT: MATT HANCOCK & NHS ENGLAND TO VACCINATE FRONTLINE WORKERS/VULNERABLE PUBLIC WITH THE EVIDENCE BASED DOSING REGIME AS PER VACCINE SCHEDULE NOT ONE THEY DECIDE IS BETTER.
3.2 WE WANT 94% FROM PFIZER VACCINE NOT 52% FROM ONE DOSE FOR 3 WKS ONLY TO BE GAMBLING WITH PEOPLES LIVES AFTER WEEK 3 IN THE MISGUIDED HOPE HALF PROTECTION IS BETTER THAN NONE.
3.3 U.K. GOVERNMENT YOU ARE LETTING DOWN ALL THOSE WHO PUT THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE (AND THOSE WHO LOST LIVES). DO THE RIGHT THINGS PUT BACK THE CORRECT DOSING REGIME AS PER STUDY DATA.”
I hope Change.org and Pfizer can succeed in changing the British Government policy but the Boris Johnson Government is not a learning govt.
