Vaccination in the Community of Madrid is being affected by certain delays in the administration of the second dose of Pfizer. An increase between injections that does not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, but it does delay the individual’s protection against the virus.
How many days can the second dose of Pfizer be delayed?
The package insert for the Pfizer vaccine indicates that the time between the two injections should be 21 days. However, the World Health Organization has assured that this time could be extended by 42 days, that is, six weeks, in cases where supply or production problems occur. However, it should be noted that the scientific community is warning that the way to be more protected against the Delta variant is with the complete vaccination schedule.
How effective is generated with the first dose of Pfizer
As published in the scientific journal JAMA Open Access, the data on the effectiveness of a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech at 13-24 days is 54.4% against symptomatic infection and 51% against infection confirmed by PCR. A small percentage when compared to the immunity achieved after the second dose, which is more than 90%.
The case of Canada: the second dose of Pfizer was spaced four months
A particularly striking case of spacing between doses with Pfizer has been Canada, which opted for a period of four months. A stance that was the result of the Canadian government’s decision to focus on administering the first doses to as many people as possible before administering the second dose. This strategy of the delayed second dose was also followed in the UK with AstraZeneca. However, the Delta variant put this route in a bind because it produced an increase in infections.
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