It would be “selfish” not to delay second Covid-19 vaccine doses, the head of the Oxford jab trial has said.
Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, justified the UK’s decision to maximise how many Brits quickly get a first dose of the rival Pfizer jab.
He was questioned by MPs about the lack of data for delaying a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, which had a dose interval of three weeks in its clinical trials.
Some NHS patients and international scientists have expressed concern at the UK’s decision to delay a second dose by up to three months.
Experts also told the All Party Parliamentary Group that “there are still arguments going on” among the scientific community whether Britain’s dosing schedule is best.
Prof Pollard said: “We’re better off as a society to vaccinate more people to get that initial protection than to be selfish and give two doses to a smaller number of people.
“So we have a much bigger impact on reducing people in hospital and dying if we delay the second dose.”
Other expert witnesses included Prof Deborah Dunn-Walters, chair of the British Society for Immunology and COVID-19 Taskforce.
She told MPs: “I’ll be honest with you, not everybody thinks it was the best decision. There’s still lots of arguments going on about it.
“But you know we’ve had communication from Australia for people out there who have criticized down there.
“They have said ‘don’t get us wrong if we were in the situation that the UK is in, we would make exactly the same decision’.
“I really understand the disappointment that people have not getting their second dose. It requires a couple of months more patience.”
The decision to delay a second dose was made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in December as infection rates were soaring.
The UK has the highest Covid-19 death rate of any country in the world.
Prof Dunn-Walters, admitted the JCVI made a “brave decision”, adding: “If you have a country with no cases of the virus in it, there’s no urgency for them to act.
“The scenarios under which they’re making their decisions are very different than our decisions are, you know, we were Christmas in quite a dreadful situation and decisions are made accordingly.”
The Oxford University vaccine has clinical trial data showing that delaying the second dose improves immunity against Covid-19.
The decision to delay a second dose of the Pfizer jab was more controversial.
NHS evidence is expected soon to confirm whether or not patients are being well protected between three week and three months after the first dose.
Prof Pollard said evidence from how other very similar vaccines perform suggest the Pfizer jab provides good protection for up to three months.
He told MPs: “With the Pfizer vaccine that we don’t have the same level of evidence because those studies of looking at the delayed second dose haven’t been done.
“But the biological principles that JCVI have used show very high protection after the first dose.”
