{"id":729,"date":"2021-01-22T15:47:49","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T15:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-write-third-letter-to-ministers-which-features-in-the-times\/"},"modified":"2021-01-22T15:47:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T15:47:49","slug":"dauk-write-third-letter-to-ministers-which-features-in-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-write-third-letter-to-ministers-which-features-in-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK write third letter to ministers which features in The Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screenshot-2021-01-22-at-14.49.12-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4847\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screenshot-2021-01-22-at-14.49.12.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/?attachment_id=4847\" class=\"wp-image-4847\"\/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screenshot-2021-01-22-at-14.49.17-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4848\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screenshot-2021-01-22-at-14.49.17.png\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.dauk.org\/?attachment_id=4848\" class=\"wp-image-4848\"\/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\">DAUK&#8217;s third letter to the CMOs and JCVI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doctors have written to ministers expressing severe concerns about the coronavirus vaccine schedule, warning that patients are at risk if they do not receive a timely second dose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a letter sent to the health secretary, the minister in charge of vaccines and the head of the NHS, doctors criticised the lack of guidance around the decision to change the period between doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine from three weeks to 12 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heads of the Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK), which represents frontline medics, have demanded immediate explanations of what steps are being taken to keep track of patients who have had the first dose because of fears that the follow-up could be missed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe must be clear that it is completely unacceptable to ignore&nbsp;the need for a second vaccination,\u201d they said. \u201cAll studies confirm the need for this to provide reliable and lasting immunity. It must be noted that there is currently no data around the reliability of the immune response if vaccines are interchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter was sent on Monday to Matt Hancock, Nadhim Zahawi, Sir Simon Stevens, Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, and other figures responsible for the UK\u2019s mass vaccination programme. DAUK has not yet received a reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe understand the rationale for the delay in scheduling the Pfizer-Biontech second dosing from three to 12 weeks. The concerns arise from decisions being made without acknowledging the consequences of enacting them on the front line,\u201d the doctors wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are concerned that there are no clear plans to follow up and monitor the immunity of these patients, to ensure the 12-week booster will be adequate, given that this schedule goes against the advice of both the manufacturer and WHO.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They called for a government guarantee that all patients will be given their second immunisations by 12 weeks \u201cat the absolute latest\u201d with the same brand of vaccine they initially received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines require two jabs, which the manufacturers say should be had three or four weeks apart. Britain has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/doctors-ordered-to-make-elderly-wait-for-12-weeks-for-second-covid-19-vaccine-dose-c0xwfhhqb\">increased the gap to up to 12 weeks<\/a>\u00a0to ensure that more vulnerable people get at least some protection over the winter, despite warnings from the companies that there is little data to justify the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ministers followed guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation that the Pfizer vaccine is 89 per cent effective after one dose, from a study of people who received their second dose within three to four weeks.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/israel-sets-the-pace-for-effectiveness-of-vaccines-07z3c6bj0\">Analysis from Israel<\/a>&nbsp;suggests that the effectiveness of a single dose may be as low as 33 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doubt was cast on whether everyone would be given a second dose when Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/second-covid-vaccine-doses-in-doubt-amid-call-for-study-into-single-jab-hnv5bcrsc\">refused this week to guarantee<\/a>&nbsp;that all people who had received a first dose would get a second within 12 weeks. He instead said the government was \u201caiming for\u201d everyone to get a second jab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the full article here: <strong>https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/delaying-second-covid-vaccine-dose-puts-patients-at-risk-insist-doctors-m53jjg7bx<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doctors have written to ministers expressing severe concerns about the coronavirus vaccine schedule, warning that patients are at risk if they do not receive a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,59,29,58],"tags":[44,316,300,38,301,47,48,337,33,34,42,131],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-general-practice","category-protect-the-frontline","category-the-nhs","tag-covid-19","tag-covid19","tag-covid19-vaccine","tag-dauk","tag-dauks-gp-committee","tag-featured-press","tag-featured-press-covid-19","tag-letter","tag-press","tag-press-covid-19","tag-the-doctors-association-uk","tag-the-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}