Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Herring
There is actually logical argument behind the proposal, not just political gain.
In trials the Pfizer vaccine was found to be 90% effective after the first dose and this improved to 94% after the second.
So given it takes the same amount of clinical time to administer each dose would you rather have a number of people protected to 94%, or twice as many protected to only 90%?
I'd suggest at those odds it might be worth considering......
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Leaving aside issues with the use of statistics and data-------
That argument would suggest we dont need to bother with the second dose at all but Im not sure there is a study yet which shows sustained effectiveness from one dose. Perhaps there is current research going on into that but in the meantime I think we should be guided by the advice of the manufacturers. Incidently, if we dont give the second dose to the initial Pfizer recipients it seems likely we will have difficulty obtaining supplies in two or three months as they become due so the policy decision will have been made for us?
My fear is that short term political factors will overide scientific knowledge and we will see an endless cycle of new waves of infection as vaccine effectiveness wears off every six to twelve months because we didnt do the job properly.