In a document sent to the Public Health Commission for debate and approval this Tuesday at an extraordinary meeting, the Spanish Ministry of Health now proposed to delay the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna prophylaxis .
Although it had been stated that such a delay would not take place, in order to increase the rate of immunization, this second dose could now be postponed specifically for between 6 and 8 weeks among people under 80 years of age. Ultimately, however, this new strategy will not be adopted .
Other countries that do
This practice, which does not have the approval of the EMA (the Pfizer technical sheet does not contemplate a delay in the immunization schedule), was nevertheless adopted by Israel and the United Kingdom at the beginning of the year. While the strategy was viewed with great skepticism at the time, it appears to have finally paid off .
There are already several countries that are following this line . Ireland, for example, has extended Pfizer’s second term from 21 to 28 days. Denmark, Germany, France, and Italy recommend a 6-week interval for Pfizer and Moderna. Finland has placed all second doses in 12 weeks. The UK also extended second doses of all vaccines to 12 weeks, and Canada to four months.
It should be noted that the EMA does not prohibit extending the administration of the second dose to 42 days (the product information does not explicitly determine the upper limit between doses), which suggests, for the moment, is that we are not sure if this new space between vaccines can guarantee the same efficacy confirmed by clinical trials .