A GP has described the extended time between doses of coronavirus vaccinations as an “unregulated and unlicensed trial”.
Dr Rosie Shire, a member of the Doctors’ Association UK, said studies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine show two doses three weeks apart gave 90% immunity.
“What really concerns us is we don’t know what happens if you don’t give that second dose of vaccination after three weeks,” she told Sky News.
“The fact is that people are being vaccinated now and being put into what is effectively an unregulated unlicensed trial, whereby they’re receiving this vaccination on the understanding that they don’t know what’s going on.”
England Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the Government’s decision to delay the time between vaccine doses, saying that it was “essential” to save more lives, more quickly.
“We do know this policy is going to save lives,” he said, speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday.
“So long as there is decent efficacy after the first dose, and we have a high degree of confidence that that’s the case, then in a situation where there is a limited supply… you want to get as many people to have as much protection as possible as quickly as possible.
“If you have grandparents who are both in their 70s or 80s you obviously would want each of them to have one dose when you know that one dose is effective, rather than one to have the full two doses and one to have no protection at all.
“That is why we have made this decision and it is essentially to save the most lives fastest and you can totally understand why we’ve done this.”
