Amid the coronavirus pandemic and vaccination going on across the world, few questions have emerged in minds of the jab-takers whether mixing two different-brand-covid-19-vaccines is safe or not? The side effects and the efficacy?
The Indian Express addressed the questions well for the people in India and as per Dr Sanjay Pujari, Infectious Diseases Specialist, the idea of vaccine combination came up after the side effects of AstraZeneca among young women.
He said that it was recommended in many countries to administer vaccines of different brands instead of AstraZeneca for safety.
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Dr Sanjay was of the view that mixing vaccines is a practice for Ebola, Malaria, Dengue, etc. and the strategy is yet in the clinical trial stage.
The studies showed that the mixing of covid-19 vaccines including AstraZeneca and mRNA was reasonably safe and more immunogenic.
Another study was carried out on several patients with 2 doses of Covishield and two doses of Covaxin and the results have shown that the mixing of vaccines was all safe.
The studies are yet to be published in a journal and have their own limitations but the initial findings maintained that mixing of two vaccines in a time of crisis is totally safe.
Dr Sanjay also said that in the west, if a patient is having adverse effects after one dose of a vaccine then he or she can go for the other option.
Meanwhile, he made it clear that mixing and matching vaccines should not be done haphazardly without any scientific approach.
Similarly, amid the ragging delta variant in Pakistan, the citizens have been rushing to the vaccination centers and the same questions have been popping up in their minds.