Prognosis

France Won’t Delay Second Covid Vaccine Dose, Citing Risks From New Variants

  • Health authority had recommended delay to immunize more
  • Officials point to lack of consensus and risk of new variants

France will administer the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within 21 to 28 days of the first.

Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg
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France decided not to delay second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, shunning the advice of its health authority and citing risks and uncertainties in the face of new variants.

“We are facing a degree of unknown and uncertainty,” Health Minister Olivier Veran said Tuesday at a press conference in Paris. “There’s a lack of scientific consensus. So I’m making a choice based on validated data that we fully understand.”