Forget 2nd dose for now to protect more patients, says Blair

CALLS to use one coronavirus jab instead of the scheduled two are being examined by the Government.

Tony Blair says the change in policy would ‘radically accelerate’ the vaccination programme and end the lockdown sooner.

The idea, which has the support of some scientists, is being considered by officials.

‘We are now in severe lockdown until vaccination,’ Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, saying the priority was to reach as many people as possible. He said it was important to determine whether the first dose of a vaccine achieved effectiveness of more than 50 per cent.

He added: ‘If it does, there’s a very strong case for not holding back doses of the vaccine, so that however many doses of the vaccine you get, you halve that for the number of people you’re vaccinating.’ The Pfizer vaccine, which is already in use, would fall within that category because it is 52 per cent effective after one dose.

However this rises to 95 per cent a week following the second injection. It is recommended that the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine be given three weeks after the first.

However trials of ‘mix and match’ combinations will be carried out in the new year, opening up the possibility that someone might have an initial jab of one vaccine followed by a different one. Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, said: ‘Moving to a single-dose regimen seems a sensible tactic in terms of getting as many people as possible protected now, but the effect needs to be carefully monitored and plans put in place for later boosting of responses if necessary.

‘The vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, the HPV vaccine, was initially a three-dose regimen. It is so remarkably effective in preventing papilloma virus infection that

it has now become a twodose regimen.’

some experts have suggested that immunity to Covid may not last as long with just one dose, meaning people would need a booster dose later on.

But the proposal from Mr Blair, right, has also been backed by Professor David salisbury, i mmunisation chief at the Department of health until 2013.

he said: ‘With current circ u mstances, I would strongly urge you to use as many first doses as you possibly can for risk groups and, only after you have done all of that, come back with second doses.’