Malaysia Will Follow Pfizer Two-Dose Vaccine Schedule!

The Malaysia Ministry of Health has officially announced that they will follow the two-dose vaccine schedule for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Find out what this means for the vaccination of the Malaysian population against COVID-19!

 

Malaysia Will Follow Pfizer Two-Dose Vaccine Schedule

On 13 February 2021, Dr. Kalaiarasu Periasamy, the Director of the Institute of Clinical Research (ICR) announced the Malaysia Ministry of Health’s “One Dose Injected, One Dose Reserved” strategy.

The first phase of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program will kick off on 26 February 2021, with the the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine.

Two doses will be reserved for each person, with the second dose administered 21 days after the first dose, as recommended by Pfizer and BioNTech.

When you arrive to a vaccination centre, you will be registered for both doses. You will be given a vaccination card, and registered in the MySejahtera app as well.

This will ensure that you are guaranteed the second dose, and will receive it as scheduled.

 

Pfizer Vaccine Schedule : Two Dose Versus One Dose?

The “one dose” schedule for the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine (also known as Cominarty) is a misnomer.

Whenever the media mentions administering a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine, they are actually referring to a delayed two-dose vaccine schedule.

The Pfizer Cominarty vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, that is given 21 days apart.

In clinical trials, the first dose was “calculated” to offer partial immunity with 89% efficacy after 15-21 days. The second dose boosts that to 92.6% a week later.

Based on that calculation, the UK Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation approved a delayed second dose interval, stretching it from 3 weeks to “up to 12 weeks”.

Their reason – to vaccinate as many people as possible with the first dose, instead of reserving it as a second dose; so that more people will have at least partial immunity.

Only time will tell if their strategy works better than the approved two-dose schedule.

Recommended : Pfizer + Moderna mRNA Vaccines : How Do They Work?

 

Pfizer : Please Follow Two-Dose Vaccine Schedule

Pfizer and BioNTech have insisted on the approved two-dose vaccine schedule, stating that :

The safety and efficacy of the vaccine has not been evaluated on different dosing schedules as the majority of trial participants received the second dose within the window specified in the study design.

They also pointed out that there is “no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days“.

This does not mean that a single dose of the Pfizer Cominarty vaccine is useless after 21 days. It merely means more research is needed to determine how long the second dose can be delayed.

The second dose does more than just boost the efficacy of the vaccine to 95%, it also triggers the Memory B cells to “remember” the COVID-19 antigen, to offer lasting protection.

 

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