A letter to the profession from the UK Chief Medical Officers, regarding the UK COVID-19 vaccination programmes

Letter sets out the scientific and public health rationale for the dosing schedule for the AstraZeneca vaccine and the change to the dosing schedule for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine).

SPS commentary:

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have also issued a short statement 'Optimising the COVID-19 vaccination programme for maximum short-term impact'

 

AstraZeneca (Oxford) vaccine should be administered in 2 doses, with the second dose given between 4 and 12 weeks after the first. For the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the interval between doses must be between 3 and 12 weeks. 

 

The UK Chief Medical Officers and JCVI advise that at this stage of the pandemic, prioritising the first doses of vaccine for as many people as possible on the priority list will protect the greatest number of at-risk people overall in the shortest possible time and will have the greatest impact on reducing mortality, severe disease and hospitalisations and in protecting the NHS and equivalent health services. Operationally this will mean that second doses of both vaccines will be administered towards the end of the recommended vaccine dosing schedule of 12 weeks.

Chief Medical Officer

Resource links:

JCVI Statement