Together Gibraltar would like to express concern regarding the Government’s decision to follow the UK’s joint committee on vaccinations and immunisation (JCVI) guidelines, recommending a 12-week delay in the administration of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine.

While the party understands that this measure is aimed at covering a greater number of people in a shorter period of time, it believes that these decisions should be taken with the backing of solid, scientific evidence and the consensus of established bodies. The UK’s change in vaccination strategy has divided the UK medical community and sparked international controversy, with negative reactions coming from vaccine developers Pfizer/Biontech, the WHO, the American FDA,  and the British Medical Association, and is not approved for implementation by the European Medicines Agency. “Any changes to this (vaccination strategy) would require a variation to the marketing authorisation as well as more clinical data to support such a change, otherwise it would be considered as `off-label use´,” the EMA said.

Dr Joachim Hombach, executive secretary of the WHO’s Sage, said “We feel that we need to be grounded in evidence in relation to our recommendations, but totally acknowledge that countries may see needs to be even more flexible in terms of the administration of the second dose, but it is important to note that there is very little empiric data from the trials that underpin this type of recommendation.” -an opinion that has been echoed by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the FDA, stating that “at this time, suggesting changes to the FDA-authorised 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, undermining the historic vaccination efforts to protect the population from COVID-19.”

Considering the risks that a failed vaccination strategy would involve in terms of avoidable deaths, inability to successfully suppress the virus and the potential to create other, more virulent strains, TG would like to ask Government if it is basing its decision on any solid, scientific evidence, or whether it is blindly following the UK’s path like it did in the first weeks of the pandemic response. Let us not forget that local public health authorities at the time stated we were following the UK’s herd immunity strategy - and we all know how that went.