Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on the covid-19 vaccine rollout of the British Medical Journal report, Covid-19: Reports from Israel suggest one dose of Pfizer vaccine could be less effective than expected, published on 22 January 2021.

The Government has not made an assessment of the named British Medical Journal report.

An independent assessment of the data from Israel, published by the Norwich Medical School, concluded that estimated vaccine effectiveness is zero 14 days after vaccination, this rose to about 90% at day 21, before levelling off. Further information is available at the following link:

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.01.21250957v1.full

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not undertaken a specific assessment. The JCVI’s position is that there is high efficacy with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The JCVI continues to advise two doses of the vaccine, with a three to 12 week interval.