Canada and First Doses First

…With such a highly protective first dose, the benefits derived from a scarce supply of vaccine could be maximized by deferring second doses until all priority group members are offered at least one dose. There may be uncertainty about the duration of protection with a single dose, but the administration of a second dose within 1 month after the first, as recommended, provides little added benefit in the short term, while high-risk persons who could have received a first dose with that vaccine supply are left completely unprotected. Given the current vaccine shortage, postponement of the second dose is a matter of national security that, if ignored, will certainly result in thousands of Covid-19–related hospitalizations and deaths this winter in the United States — hospitalizations and deaths that would have been prevented with a first dose of vaccine.

Danuta M. Skowronski, M.D.
British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Vancouver, BC, Canada
[email protected]

Gaston De Serres, M.D., Ph.D.
Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec, Quebec City, QC, Canada

That’s from a letter to the NEJM which also includes a debate on delaying the second dose and a poll (vote for delaying the second dose!). What I want to point out today is that the authors are experts from Canada. I believe that first doses first will save lives in the US but delaying the second dose and other dose-stretching policies are even more vital in countries where vaccines supplies are more limited than in the United States.