Vaccine 2nd doses issue: US says necessary, Canada and Germany extend

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Thu, 2021-03-04 11:05 — mike kraft

Two doses of Pfizer and Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine are necessary, officials say, but questions still linger The United States is holding firm to the strategy to administer two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines a few weeks apart. Still, the idea of expanding the supply by dispensing only one dose hasn't faded away. The Trump administration's surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said in a tweet on Tuesday that the good protection available with one shot "is better than great protection for a few." Jen Christensen, CNN CNN

(CNN) The United States is holding firm to the strategy to administer two doses of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines a few weeks apart. Still, the idea of expanding the supply by dispensing only one dose hasn't faded away.

The Trump administration's surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said in a tweet on Tuesday that the good protection available with one shot "is better than great protection for a few."

He later clarified with a second tweet that he wasn't recommending that it was 100% the way to go, but that it was worth "giving states the flexibility to try it."

Although 80.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is entering the US supply, demand still far outpaces the number of vaccines available.

That has not swayed vaccine makers, the US Food and Drug Administration or the CDC to shift toward single doses to cover more people sooner.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Wednesday that Adams' tweets were not accounting for the impact of virus variants, which can decrease the amount of protection from vaccines.

By going with just one dose, "you're at a very tenuous level. Good enough to do protection, but if you diminish it by fivefold, you fall off the chart of protection."

The mRNA vaccines were authorized for use in the US based on clinical trial data that shows two doses of the vaccines taken a few weeks apart are about 95% effective at preventing symptomatic infection. Clinical trials for both vaccines show that the second dose gives a big boost to protective antibodies.

DC guidelines continue to advise two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and experts at the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting on Monday said there's insufficient scientific evidence to support a vaccination strategy that would delay a second dose or eliminate it all together....

ALSO SEE: Canada vaccine panel recommends 4 months between COVID doses

AND: Germany will extend interval between vaccine doses "to its maximum"

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