|
 The FDA said it had been following discussions and news reports
about reducing the number of doses, extending the length of time
between doses, cutting the dosage in half, or mixing and matching
vaccines in order to immunize more people.
Although these were "reasonable" questions to consider, the U.S.
regulator said, "at this time suggesting changes to the
FDA-authorized dosing or schedules of these vaccines is premature
and not rooted solidly in the available evidence."
"Without appropriate data supporting such changes in vaccine
administration, we run a significant risk of placing public health
at risk," the agency said in a statement.
Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE as well as Moderna Inc recently won
U.S. emergency use authorization for their vaccine candidates.
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 The available data continues to
support the use of two specified doses of each
authorized vaccine at specified intervals, the
FDA said.
"For the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the
interval is 21 days between the first and second
dose. And for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the
interval is 28 days between the first and second
dose," the FDA said on Monday https://bit.ly/38g9IsC.
In a departure from other countries' strategies,
the British government said last week people
could on rare occasions be given a mix-and-match
of two COVID-19 shots, for example if the same
vaccine dose was out of stock.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru;
Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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