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Covid-19: Senior doctors urge medical chiefs to halve the wait between doses of Covid-19 vaccine

The British Medical Association has written to chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty calling for the gap between vaccine doses to be reduced to six weeks, it has been revealed.

The private letter, seen by the BBC, said the current plans of people waiting up to 12 weeks for a second dose - which Health Secretary Matt Hancock said is supported by data from an Israeli study - are "difficult to justify".

It said: "The absence of any international support for the UK's approach is a cause of deep concern and risks undermining public and the profession's trust in the vaccination programme."

Appearing alongside Boris Johnson at Friday’s Downing Street briefing, Professor Whitty defended the policy saying it would double the number of people receiving jabs.

He said extending the gap was a "public health decision" that would allow "many more people to be vaccinated much more quickly".

The UK initially planned to leave 21 days between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which became the first in the country to be administered to vulnerable people after it was green-lighted in early December. 

But officials moved to increase the gap between both parts of the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to 12 weeks.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the decision to extend the wait followed a review of the data and was "in line with the recommendations of the UK's four chief medical officers".

In the letter, the BMA said it agreed the vaccine should be rolled out "as quickly as possible".

But it called for an urgent review of the UK’s strategy and said the gap between the first and second doses should be reduced.

The doctors' union said the UK approach "has become increasingly isolated internationally" and "is proving evermore difficult to justify".

"The absence of any international support for the UK's approach is a cause of deep concern and risks undermining public and the profession's trust in the vaccination programme," the letter says.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, the chair of the BMA, Dr Chaand Nagpaul raised "growing concerns" that the vaccine could become less effective when doses are 12 weeks apart.

"Obviously the protection will not vanish after six weeks, but what we do not know is what level of protection will be offered [after that point]," he said.

"We should not be extrapolating data when we don't have it."

Communities Secretary later said the 12-week vaccine gap is based on ‘very clear’ advice

Appearing on Sky News, he said: "The government’s following very clear advice by the MHRA, our own experts and from the four chief chief medical officers of all parts of the UK, and they said that ensuring that someone is vaccinated for the second jab within 12 weeks is fine, and that’s what we’re following.  

“As a result of that, we’re ensuring that millions more people can get the first jab.”

Public Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle also defended the decision to delay the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine to 12 weeks.

Dr Doyle said the decision had been taken on "public health and scientific advice".

"The more people that are protected against this virus, the less opportunity it has to get the upper hand. Protecting more people is the right thing to do," she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on Saturday.

"People will get their second dose. As supplies become available more people will be vaccinated.

"It is a reasonable scientific balance on the basis of both supply and also protecting the most people."

Reference: Evening Standard:Michael Howie  5 hrs ago

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Side effects from second covid shot 'knocked out' Dr Fauci for 24 hrs

Dr Anthony Fauci has admitted he was 'knocked out' for a full day by his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine. 

'I was hoping that I wouldn’t get too knocked out. I did for about 24 hours. Now I’m fine,' Dr Fauci said during a Thursday White House press briefing when asked if he'd had his booster shot. 

The nation's top infectious disease doctor said he was 'fatigued. A little achy. You know. Chilly,' but 'no sick' after his second dose of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine. 

Those are among the most common side effects of either of the two shots authorized in the US, made by Pfizer and Moderna. 

But Dr Fauci continued to remind Americans that those side effects are not illness triggered by the vaccine, but the immune system ramping up to fend off the virus. 

Dr Fauci revealed he got his second dose of the vaccine on January 19. 

It came 28 days after he received his first dose of the shot on December 22, on live television. 

He joined the ranks of other officials and high-profile figures whose vaccinations were televised to encourage Americans to get theirs, including President Biden, former Vice President Pence and three former US presidents: Obama, Bush and Clinton. 

Former President Trump, who had COVD-19 last fall, did not publicly get vaccinated. It is unclear whether he had the shot behind closed doors.  

Americans' confidence in vaccines has improved since the summer, when only about half of US adults said they planned to get the shot. 

By the end of December, that share had risen to 60 percent, according to Pew Research.

Reference: Daily Mail: Natalie Rahhal U.S. Health Editor  2 hrs ago

Biden says vaccine rollout has been a 'dismal failure' and urges Americans to wear a mask for 99 days

Joe Biden has warned that the fight to bring coronavirus under control in the US is a "wartime undertaking" - devoting much of his first full day in office to tackling the pandemic.

The new president signed 10 executive orders on Thursday that are designed to ramp up testing, tackle vaccine shortages, and increase mask wearing nationwide.

More than 406,000 people have died as a result of COVID-19 in the US, and more than 24.5 million cases have been confirmed - with 4,367 fatalities confirmed in the past 24 hours.

Mr Biden has described the rollout of vaccines in the US as a "dismal failure so far", and vowed to expand vaccine manufacturing in the coming weeks.

He also made a personal plea to the American people - telling them that experts believe more than 50,000 lives could be saved if the public wear masks for the next 99 days.

In other developments on Thursday:

• Dr Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious diseases expert, suggested that coronavirus cases may be about to hit a plateau in the country

• New figures showed that a variant of COVID-19 first detected in the UK has now spread to at least 20 states

• Mr Biden said the US will back a global plan to get vaccines to poorer countries

• The new administration announced it will reinstate entry bans on most non-American citizens who have recently been in Brazil, the UK, Ireland and most of Europe

• The president's top adviser on the pandemic said the US will once again contribute funding to the World Health Organisation - reversing Donald Trump's plans to pull out

• Authorities in California, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii warned COVID vaccine supplies were running out - with New York City starting to cancel appointments

Mr Biden has pledged to provide 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine during his first 100 days in office - and intends to open up eligibility to new groups including teachers and supermarket workers.

After being sidelined by Mr Trump, Dr Fauci returned to the White House briefing room on Thursday - adding that it was "liberating" to serve under a science-friendly administration.

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He told reporters: "One of the new things in this administration is, if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer."

Later today, Mr Biden will begin calls with foreign leaders - starting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

But Downing Street has said it is unable to confirm when Boris Johnson will be in contact with the US president for the first time since he entered the Oval Office.

Reference: Connor Sephton, news reporter  14 hrs ago