This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Reverse the decision to extend the time between COVID vaccinations.
I do not believe that the government have made an ethical decision in extending the time between vaccinations. The research clearly demonstrates that the scientists are not clear that giving the vaccine more than 12 weeks apart actually gives an assurance re immunity as published.
More details
I want the government to return to the original vaccination programme.
Pfizer have said it has tested the vaccine's efficacy only when the two vaccines were given up to 21 days apart.
Pfizer and BioNTech have both warned that two doses of their vaccine were required for maximum protection against Covid and that they did not have evidence that the first dose alone offered protection after three weeks. The risk is that no one will be properly immune with an extension to the 2nd dose.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.
We can only accept petitions about things the Government or House of Commons are directly responsible for, and decisions about approval of vaccines and the administration of these is a matter for various public health agencies, not the Government or House of Commons.
We have published the following petition calling for a related action, which you might like to sign:
Ban vaccines being administered in a manner not fully tested in clinical trials: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/566116
The delays to receiving the second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine has been implemented by the NHS following advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises UK health departments on immunisation, which has also been supported by the UK's four Chief Medical Officers. Their new advice and the changes to the Covid-19 vaccination programme are consistent with the temporary authorisations granted for these vaccines by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
The JCVI, Chief Medical Officers, MHRA and NHS England are all independent and operationally independent of the UK Government, so we cannot accept petitions calling for actions that these bodies are responsible for.
You can read the JCVI's advice on optimising the COVID-19 vaccination programme for maximum short-term impact here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prioritising-the-first-covid-19-vaccine-dose-jcvi-statement/optimising-the-covid-19-vaccination-programme-for-maximum-short-term-impact
You can read the statement from the UK Chief Medical Officers on the prioritisation of first doses of COVID-19 vaccines here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/statement-from-the-uk-chief-medical-officers-on-the-prioritisation-of-first-doses-of-covid-19-vaccines
You can read the MHRA's conditions of Authorisation for Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-approval-of-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-for-covid-19/conditions-of-authorisation-for-pfizerbiontech-covid-19-vaccine
You can read the MHRA's conditions of Authorisation for COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-approval-of-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca/conditions-of-authorisation-for-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.