Covid vaccine booster hit by delay

COVID-19 vaccine booster jabs have been delayed across Lancashire’s five NHS trusts, with residents now set to get their second vaccination injection up to three months after the first.

Last week, the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and UK Chief Medical Officers issued guidance asking healthcare organisations to cancel all Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine booster appointments set for three weeks after the initial jab. All OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine boosters set for four weeks after first vaccination jabs have also been pushed back to the same delayed time frame.

The guidance was issued despite BioNTech and Pfizer saying there is no evidence that protection from Covid-19 will last if the booster shot is delayed, with no tests conducted on this during the trial phase.

But government and the NHS has pushed ahead with the recommendations from the JCVI in order to give as many people the first part of the vaccination as quickly as possible, with Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said the country is now in a “race against time” to bring the new strain of Covid-19 under control.

It is understood the NHS in Lancashire is confident the vaccine remains effective for 12 weeks, with no safety concerns in delaying the vaccine booster. This is despite BioNTech and Pfizer jointly saying the “safety and efficacy of the vaccine has not been evaluated on different dosing schedules as the majority of trial participants received the second dose within the window specified in the study design”