US hits record number of Covid-19 hospitalizations
The extra doses in Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vials are safe and should be used, US Food and Drug Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said Friday.
It’s possible to squeeze out extra doses of Pfizer’s vaccine from the vials, if there is solution remaining in them after the standard five doses are given, the FDA said earlier this week.
“It’s safe to use,” Hahn said in an interview with Michael Toscano on the “First Light” podcast. “If the appropriate dosage is in there, the volume for the vaccine, it should be used, and we have no concerns about that.”
Hahn said that it’s not uncommon for extra solution to be in vaccine vials.
“It’s a very common thing,” he said. “There’s always some overage that occurs, just to make sure that there’s enough for the doses that are said to be within the vial.”
It’s important to plan for anyone who receives one vaccine dose to get a second, Hahn said.
“If you want the 95% protection, the clinical trial shows that the two-dose regimen, 21 days apart, is what you need,” he said. “But given that this overage is in the vials, we believe that that can be factored into subsequent calculations.”
