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You mean: leading the way in the number of people having received a first jab.
If you look at the number of fully vaccinated people, who have received their two shots, the picture is quite different. The UK is even lagging behind France (which is arguably among the EU's laggards). This because the UK authorities have chosen to maximize the number of people receiving a first dose, while delaying the second dose up to 12 weeks after, against the recommendations of the vaccine manufacturers.
To be fully effective, the vaccine requires two doses. And only 0.80% of the UK population has received both shots, less than that of France (0.92%), and a long way behind Denmark, which has 2.87% of its population fully vaccinated. https://t.co/ql12e5BDl6 #r4today— John Dalton - really not "moving on" 🇨🇰🇪🇺 (@JohnDalton6011) February 16, 2021
To be fully effective, the vaccine requires two doses. And only 0.80% of the UK population has received both shots, less than that of France (0.92%), and a long way behind Denmark, which has 2.87% of its population fully vaccinated. https://t.co/ql12e5BDl6 #r4today
The issue of delaying a second jab is an interesting one. AFAIK there is little hard evidence to support an "optimum" time lag. But if one jab can give 80% immunity and 2 jabs give 95% immunity in one person, it might be better, from a heard immunity perspective, to give the two jabs to two different people. In 12 weeks time, the current production bottlenecks may have been overcome in any case, and the interval can be reduced again.
Also, a lot of people have already had covid - do they still need two jabs, or is one enough? Index of Frank's Diaries
France public health authorities are now recommending one jab, but waiting for at least three months after the infection (that would include one Emmanuel Macron who was sick before Christmas).
France's health authority recommends one vaccine dose for recovered COVID-19 patients
France on Friday recommended that people who have already recovered from Covid-19 infection receive a single vaccine dose, becoming the first country to issue such advice. Its public health authority said that people who had previously been infected with Covid-19 develop an immune response similar to that bestowed by a vaccine dose, and that a single dose after infection would likely suffice.
Its public health authority said that people who had previously been infected with Covid-19 develop an immune response similar to that bestowed by a vaccine dose, and that a single dose after infection would likely suffice.
And yes, the health authorities are definitely pushing for people to have the two jabs within 3 to 4 weeks of each other, despite the current shortages. According to the figures, these past days there has been more second jabs (76,012 today) than first ones (33,202 today) - source: covidtracker.fr
Worse:
"If people are only partially immunized with one dose, could that fuel more dangerous coronavirus variants?
That is a real concern, according to Paul Bieniasz, a retrovirologist at the Rockefeller University. Early in the pandemic, there was little pressure on the novel coronavirus to evolve because nobody's immune system was primed against infection, and the microbe had easy pickings. But now millions of people have become infected and have developed antibodies, so mutations that give the virus a way to evade those defenses are rising to prominence. "The virus is going to evolve in response to antibodies, irrespective of how we administer vaccines," Bieniasz says. "The question is: Would we be accelerating that evolution by creating country-sized populations of individuals with partial immunity?"
Given SARS-CoV-2 is already mutating in the UK not completing the vaccination per clinical trial protocol is absolutely freaking stupid.
cite She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
"We don't understand the prevalence of mutations "
Trevor Bedford, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said in a Twitter thread on Thursday that a steady decline in U.S. coronavirus cases that has brought levels back to where they were in late October could be threatened by the "rapid take-off of B.1.1.7." He said there is evidence that the B.1.1.7 variant "will reach 50% frequency in the U.S. perhaps by late March." [...] "I'm not sure at this point how much of a spring B.1.1.7 wave to expect," he said. In the U.S., there were 1,523 cases of B.1.1.7 reported across 42 states as of Feb. 18, according to CDC data. [...] In Britain, new daily coronavirus case counts have been hovering at about 12,000 for the last week. Christina Pagel, who leads a team of researchers at University College London who apply mathematics to problems in health care, said the B.1.1.7 variant now makes up about 90% of new cases in Britain. [...] Simon Clarke, a professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that in addition to the B.1.1.7 variant being more contagious there is an emerging body of evidence suggesting it could be more lethal, a possibility that was initially raised by British scientists before being downplayed. He said there is anecdotal evidence from hospitals, not confirmed by studies, that the B.1.1.7 variant could be harming more younger people. However, he cautioned it was too early to drawn firm conclusions.
In the U.S., there were 1,523 cases of B.1.1.7 reported across 42 states as of Feb. 18, according to CDC data. [...] In Britain, new daily coronavirus case counts have been hovering at about 12,000 for the last week. Christina Pagel, who leads a team of researchers at University College London who apply mathematics to problems in health care, said the B.1.1.7 variant now makes up about 90% of new cases in Britain. [...] Simon Clarke, a professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that in addition to the B.1.1.7 variant being more contagious there is an emerging body of evidence suggesting it could be more lethal, a possibility that was initially raised by British scientists before being downplayed. He said there is anecdotal evidence from hospitals, not confirmed by studies, that the B.1.1.7 variant could be harming more younger people. However, he cautioned it was too early to drawn firm conclusions.
New viruses continue to emerge that threaten people, crops, and farm animals. Viruses constantly evade our immune systems, and antiviral therapies and vaccination campaigns can be powerless against them. These unique characteristics of virus biology are a consequence of their tremendous evolutionary potential, which enables viruses to quickly adapt to any environmental challenge.
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