WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / March 12, 2021 / David Jones, founder of The Human Health Initiative, has announced research suggesting that using smaller doses of COVID-19 vaccines could save nearly a million lives worldwide by allowing more people to be vaccinated sooner with a limited supply. Jones is calling on drug companies and regulatory agencies to collect additional data required to approve the new strategy.
Jones compiled clinical trial data and research to show that smaller doses of the vaccines - even 1/30th of a Pfizer dose - have an extremely high probability of equal efficacy when compared to full doses despite requiring far less of the vaccine.
"We are simply more efficiently stimulating the immune system, with small booster doses of the vaccine, to reach the same levels of cells and protective antibodies," Jones argues.
He suggested that ideally, regulators would approve the use of correlates so that additional phase 3 trials are not required. Using correlates would allow for the approval of smaller vaccine doses by showing that immune cells produce an equivalent response from smaller doses versus full doses. Such data could be collected from a small cohort of people over a five- to eight-week period, allowing a change of dosing strategy to occur in as little as a few weeks in the best-case scenario.
Jones sought input from dozens of immunologists, microbiologists, doctors, and other scientists affiliated with institutions such as Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These experts overwhelmingly agree that the idea of using smaller vaccine doses has merit, further backed by scientific evidence.
"The research is well-rounded and adequately addresses all primary concerns associated with the possibility of fractional dose vaccination," Pialy Ghanekar, a virologist and immunologist with a Ph.D. in microbiology, said. Ghanekar's work has focused on viruses such as influenza, rabies, rotavirus, dengue and HIV.
Jones argues that it is the artifacts of our regulatory system that have caused us to choose larger doses of the vaccines, not because those are the only doses we should use. Due to our regulatory process, vaccine companies would have had to double their trial size to seek approval for a second dose, potentially delaying approval.
Now that we better understand what causes severe illness and how the vaccines prevent it, it is clear that smaller doses are nearly certain to be equally effective, and this can be confirmed with more data.
"This is not a scientific problem. This is a problem of political will. With nearly a million lives at stake and such a simple solution to end the pandemic quickly, we must convince our leaders to take action to save these lives and return the world to normal," Jones said.
About The Human Health Initiative
The Human Health Initiative was founded by David Jones, an entrepreneur and software developer with a lifelong passion for curing diseases. To reach The Human Health Initiative or the scientists involved in the research above, please contact:
CONTACT:
David Jones
301-357-0858
davidjones@thehhi.org
SOURCE: The Human Health Initiative
View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/635146/The-Human-Health-Initiative-Announces-Strategy-to-Save-More-Lives-with-COVID-19-Vaccines-Following-Groundbreaking-Research
