Rolling out one dose is backed by West expert

A DEVON expert in infectious disease says immediate mass immunisation initially using one dose could help in the battle against the spread of coronavirus, writes Anita Merritt.

Dr Bharat Pankhania, Exeter University’s communicable disease and public health expert, is urging ‘out of the box’ thinking to get a grip on the virus.

He added that although a new strain of Covid-19 is circulating, and may be more infectious, it is not more serious as a disease.

His advice is that the important thing is for people to do all they can to try and prevent the spread of the virus, and that people should not be worrying about the effectiveness of vaccines.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for an overhaul of vaccine rollout plans by not holding back second doses and instead using them to give patients their first jabs.

The former Labour prime minister said under the current system “much of the country will not be vaccinated until spring or summer” – leading to “colossal” economic and health damage.

In a plea to Boris Johnson, he urged the prime minister to “radically accelerate” mass-immunisation.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine approved for distribution in the UK requires two doses, administered two weeks apart.

Dr Bharat said: “A programme of mass immunisation, using the one dose to immunise many people, as fast as possible, merits serious consideration, as some immunity from the first dose, preventing severe disease and death, in the middle of a crisis, is worthy of consideration and ought not to be discarded.

“The right calibre, brave and outside the box thinking experts and modellers need to be engaged to consider this scenario of using the available vaccines to immunise as many people as is possible very, very quickly.

“If you start immunising a large number of people you also start protecting a large number of people, so it is an idea very much worth considering.

“The moment you receive it then it starts to protect. The second dose protects you further. If you are in a crisis and if it prevents you from entering hospital and dying then it is not a bad strategy, and then you will get dose number two. Other countries have similar plans to do exactly that.

“Viruses, like this SARS-CoV-2, RNA one, do frequently mutate and change. The key will be if it is more infectious and disease causing in the younger age population. This will determine how schools will operate in 2021.

“There is no reason to suspect that existing immunity will not work against the new lineage of the SARSCoV-2 virus. Similarly no reason to suspect that the vaccines will not work. In any case vaccines can be refashioned if need be.”

He added: “The new lineage of the SARS-CoV-2 may be circulating, it may be more infectious, but not more serious disease causing. The important bit is don’t drop your guard, and maintain infection control. Don’t get infected, and don’t infect others.”

Speaking on BBC Radio London, Dr Bharat spoke of how effective further Tier 4 restrictions will be. He said: “If we have a patchwork quilt of tiers and restrictions, it won’t work as has been clearly demonstrated over several months. We have ministers and even health officers and so many other people now saying the new strain is more infectious.

“Independently of everyone, I say it may be more infectious. The bottom line is you’ve got to get infected in the first instance so whatever strain is in circulation the important bit is your protection prevention measures rather than saying to yourself it is the fault of the new strain of the virus.”

Dr Bharat said he was not surprised the virus is mutating because that is what viruses do.

He said: “They replicate and in this case what has probably happened is it has been reproducing in someone who was probably immunosuppressed and a dominant strain emerges as a result of several cycles of reproduction in one person, and that’s what’s happened.”