Delaying the second dose of two step vaccines such as Pfizer or AstraZeneca will not have any major effect on vaccine efficacy.
That's according to Professor of Virology with UCD and Roscommon native, Dr. Gerald Barry, who says vaccines are being reserved and stockpiled to ensure their availability for second doses.
Discussions are currently ongoing between health experts to extend the wait between people receiving their second vaccine dose in order to free up current stockpiles and make them available for use for others.
According to Dr Barry, extending the wait between doses will not affect the protection they grant to the recipient, and in the case of the AstraZeneca jab, can even increase efficacy.
Speaking to the Joe Finnegan Show Today, he says that inoculating more people with the first dose of the vaccine still gives significant protection from the virus:
