Coronavirus live: second pandemic year to be deadlier than first, warns WHO; Germany to mark UK as risk area | World news

Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine beyond the originally recommended three-week gap used by the companies in clinical trials appears to induce a stronger antibody response in the elderly, UK researchers found.

Shortly after the vaccine became available, UK health officials advised that the second dose should be given 12 weeks after the first to allow more people to get protected by a first dose early on.

In a new paper seen by Reuters and expected to appear on medRxiv ahead of peer review, researchers found that among 175 people ages 80 to 99, those who got their second dose at 12 weeks had antibody responses that were 3.5 times higher than those who got it…