Covid vaccine concerns can be cured by transparent decision-making – Scotsman comment

Vaccine-maker Pfizer has said there is “no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose [of its vaccine] is sustained after 21 days”, while the WHO recommends no more than a six-week gap between the two doses.

But, in the UK, the two doses for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines are to be given up to three months apart, a strategy designed to inoculate as many people as possible with one dose first.

The decision to allow a 12-week gap between doses was taken by the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation with support from the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers, and such unanimity should help give us confidence. And the leaders of other countries, including the incoming Biden administration in the US, are reportedly considering whether to follow the UK’s decision.

What is clear from the new poll is that the public need to be reassured that the decisions being taken are the correct ones.

And, in an age of social media, when doubts and misinformation can spread faster than any virus, the best way to do this, as Nature states, is to be transparent about the decision-making process.

The last thing we need is for the vaccination programme – our way out of this crisis – to be undermined because a gap in public knowledge is filled by people who don’t know what they are talking about.

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