Nashville, TN (TN Tribune)-Dr. James E. K. Hildreth, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College, went to his Twitter feed Friday to speak against an idea started in the United Kingdom and gaining traction in America that all available COVID-19 vaccine doses be given as a single shot to vaccinate more people.
With the coronavirus vaccine rollout alarmingly behind schedule across the United States and a more contagious strain of the disease now spreading in at least three states, epidemiologists are abuzz over a new overseas strategy: delaying the second dose of the vaccine to get more people at least partly immunized faster.
Hildreth warns that this strategy has not been tested.
“US public health leaders considering using all available COVID-19 vaccine doses to give single shot to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible. There is no DATA to support this approach. Perhaps time would be better spent on fixing vaccine distribution debacle,” Hildreth said in his January 1st Tweet.
Hildreth, who was a part of an FDA vaccine advisory panel, later Tweeted that Moderna and Pfizer trials were not designed to answer the question of protection with one dose.
“I was part of FDA review panel & it is clear from review of both data sets that it would be unwise to give one shot since two large studies showed that boost/prime gave full protection,” Hildreth said on Twitter.
Anthony Fauci the country’s top infectious diseases doctor, said Thursday the idea of pushing out the first dose to everyone is “under consideration.”
