No worries if people getting doses of different vaccines: Dr Paul
Taking cue from the European countries, India too is considering mix-and-match doses of vaccines on a trial basis with the Government on Thursday saying that there is no concern if just in case people are getting different doses.
Its assertion came following a recent Spanish study that has found that vaccinating people with both the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines produces a potent immune response against the virus SARS-CoV-2.
“As per the protocol, stick to the same dose of vaccine as the first one. If people are getting different doses there is no cause for concern, it’s safe. We are thinking to mix and match (vaccine doses) on a trial basis,” said Dr VK Paul, member (Health) of Niti Aayog at a press conference here. The mix-and match option suits the Government too in view of supply-chain and shortage issues affecting its nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive, especially for the second dose.
Dr Paul was replying to a query if there were health concerns in a case of 20 residents of a village in Uttar Pradesh who were administered a different coronavirus vaccine as a second dose.
“There should be no cause of concern and added that any adverse event is unlikely,” he said, adding that more scrutiny was required in the case.
However, on May 22, Dr Paul called for treading cautiously. “It is plausible. But there needs to be more studies. It can’t be said definitively that mixing of doses can be practised. There is no robust scientific evidence,” he had said.
The combination of doses of Covid-19 vaccines started gaining preliminary results from the trial of more than 600 people - announced in an online presentation on May 18- are the first to show the benefits of combining different coronavirus vaccines, as published in a Spanish journal. A UK trial of a similar strategy was said to be reported on safety data last week, and is expected to deliver further findings on immune responses soon.
According to reports, various European countries are already mulling such combinations so that some or all people who were given a first dose of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, UK, and AstraZeneca in Cambridge, UK, can get another vaccine for their second dose.
Researchers hope that such mix-and-match COVID-19 vaccination regimens will trigger stronger, more robust immune responses than will two doses of a single vaccine, while simplifying immunization efforts for countries facing fluctuating supplies of the various vaccines.
In the UK, Public Health England too has taken a similar stance. After the Government delayed second vaccine doses for up to 12 weeks so that more people could get their first jab and at least some protection, health officials acknowledged that, in exceptional circumstances, mismatched doses may be given to those who come in for their second booster only to find that the vaccine they originally had is not available.
However, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 22 warned against the mixing of vaccines unless there are “exceptional situations”, such as a shortage of the first-dose vaccine because of production or distribution problems.