London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Government denies top doctor's claims UK is low on Pfizer vaccines

Government denies top doctor's claims UK is low on Pfizer vaccines

Claims by a leading NHS doctor that the UK is running ‘very low’ on Pfizer vaccines have been rebuffed by the Government.

Dame Clare Gerada also claimed the vaccine is being offered to people three weeks after their first jab – against Government advice for an eight-week wait.

It received regulatory approval in December on a minimum gap of three weeks and ‘hundreds’ of GPs are following this guidance with their patients, according to reports.

The UK government originally settled on recommending a 12-week gap between Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to allow more people to get a first jab.

Last month, the gap between appointments was cut to eight weeks as the NHS strives to double jab all adults by mid-September.

Dame Clare, co-chair of the NHS Assembly, made her comments on the BBC Radio 4 Today show on Tuesday.

It was put to her that ‘a lot of GPs have chosen to offer a shorter time difference [between doses] and that’s causing quite a lot of confusion’.

Nearly 80 million jabs have been delivered in the UK since December


She replied: ‘We are offering the Pfizer one at three weeks [after someone’s first jab].

‘At the moment, we’ve mainly got the AstraZeneca vaccine and very few Pfizer.

‘So I think the confusion has been the fact that we’re calling people for the AstraZeneca and actually cancelling people for the Pfizer as our supplies are running short.’

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care denied the statement.

They told Metro.co.uk: ‘There are no shortages of vaccines and our vaccination programme is making phenomenal progress with more than 4 in 5 people in the UK receiving their first dose.

‘We have reduced the dose interval for the under 40s from 12 weeks to 8 weeks to ensure every adult has the chance to have two doses by mid-September.

A shortage of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been reported by a leading doctor


‘We are on track to offer every adult a first dose and two-thirds of adults a second dose by the 19th July.’

People in their 20s and 30s aren’t being offered the AstraZeneca jab amid concerns there is a small chance of young people developing an extremely rare blood clot.

Speaking alongside Dame Clare, Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London was asked if it’s better for people to bring forward their second Covid jab or stick to the 12-week gap.

He said: ‘That’s a really interesting one. I’m terms of how the vaccines work… there is what you might call a sour point … where if you administer the second dose between six and seven weeks, you might actually have a much less effective boost than if you wait for eight weeks or more.

‘So eight weeks is the minimum and 12 weeks was a very sensible choice because of that effect of your immune system needing to go into a resting state before you give it a second boost.’

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×