Sadly the Times also reporting that those scheduled for their second Pfizer jab next week will have them postponed for up to 12 weeks. Not sure where the science is behind all this, these gaps were certainly not in the trials, and as I mentioned above I think the first cohort, by definition the most vulnerable, should complete the course as planned.I am sure the people who have the first Pfizer jab will get the second Pfizer jab at the correct time. There is only limited amounts of that vaccine and it doesn't keep well..
I think the one jab now one jab later plan is only practical for the Oxford jab.
And no ...my immunological knowledge would say you can't mix the jabs...
Lots of talk about 2 million doses given a week. I assume that Handcock has factored in not only the manufacturing side of this but the fact that every single batch of these as yet unlicensed and for emergency use only medicines has to be quality checked by someone or other. One reason why AZ, which said it would deliver 4 million doses this year, and has supposedly been manufacturing since the summer, has actually only put 500,000 in the supply chain.
The fix is certainly in for AZ though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted we have this vaccine and am eager to have it myself, but last night on the BBC there were a series of rather misleading comments, all favouring the AZ vaccine over the Pfizer one. ‘You can’t compare the results of the trials of the two different products’ - err, yes you can, both directly and indirectly, it’s how regulators and assessors make decisions about which drugs are better than others, and which ones to pay for. The Pfizer vaccine is difficult to distribute - well, yes but not that difficult - the company supplies the dry ice packaging for transport and it actually needs to be at fridge/ordinary freezer temperature for the last couple of days to defrost. The Pfizer vaccine is harder to make and in shorter supply - well, a bit and supply is tighter because more places have approved its use, but the UK has had 4 million doses delivered this month compared to 500k available for AZ. The AZ vaccine is much cheaper than the Pfizer one - 100% correct and I suspect what this is all,about. I got the strong impression (though maybe I’ve been infected with the general creeping paranoia) that this was about persuading people not to ask for the Pfizer version.