Beneath “distinctive circumstances,” the second dose of the BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine will be given as much as six weeks after the primary, the World Well being Group mentioned Tuesday.
The worldwide well being physique has waded into the talk as rising numbers of nations contemplate delaying second doses of vaccines in an try to offer a minimum of some type of safety towards the virus to the best variety of individuals.
Alejandro Cravioto, of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Specialists on Immunization (SAGE), mentioned that whereas SAGE’s official advice is for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine doses to be given inside 21 to twenty-eight days, they’ve “made a provision for nations in distinctive circumstances of vaccine provide constraints and epidemiological settings to delay the administration of the second dose for a number of weeks with a purpose to maximise the variety of people benefiting from a primary dose.”
Nonetheless, not like the U.Ok. resolution to permit as much as 12 weeks between the primary and second dose, the WHO’s SAGE permits a pause of solely six weeks.
Joachim Hombach, government secretary of SAGE, defined that this advice is predicated on six weeks being the utmost time interval for which there’s a minimum of some medical knowledge obtainable.
SAGE’s resolution comes following the WHO itemizing the vaccine for emergency use on December 31.
The group is ready to fulfill once more to determine on suggestions for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which has additionally been listed for emergency use.