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NEWS
Single-dose of Pfizer, Moderna COVID vaccine nearly as effective as two: study
By Laura Italiano
February 18, 2021 | 1:17pm
Single doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are more than 92 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 illness after two weeks, Canadian researchers are now saying.
The FDA’s own data show that a single shot of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is 92.6 percent effective after two weeks, and a single Moderna jab is 92.1 percent effective, the researchers note in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Getting that second shot of Pfizer’s vaccine hikes the efficacy only marginally, to 94 percent, according to a separate study based on real-world data from Israel’s vaccination program.
And so the prescribed second doses should be given instead to those in priority groups who are still waiting for their first shot, “given the current vaccine shortage,” the researchers urge.
“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,” the researchers say in a letter to the NEJM editors.
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