Half...

 

A top official of Operation Warp Speed floated a new idea for stretching the limited number of coronavirus vaccine doses in the United States: halving the dose of each shot of Moderna’s vaccine to potentially double the number of people who could receive it.

Data from Moderna’s clinical trials demonstrated that people between the ages of 18 and 55 who received two 50-microgram doses showed an “identical immune response” to the standard of two 100-microgram doses.

Operation Warp Speed was in discussions with the Food and Drug Administration and the pharmaceutical company Moderna over implementing the half-dose regimen.

Representative was asked whether the United States would follow Britain’s lead: delaying second doses of newly authorized vaccines to immunize a larger swath of the population. 

Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, agreed that there might be more data to support a vaccine strategy that relied on half-doses rather than delayed doses.