Britain will allow mixing of COVID-19 vaccines on rare occasions

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will allow people to have injections of different COVID-19 vaccines on rare occasions, despite the lack of evidence on the extent of immunity offered by mixing doses.

In disagreement with other global strategies, the government said people could receive a combination of two injections of COVID-19, for example, if the same dose of vaccine was out of stock, according to guidelines published on New Year’s Eve. . “(If) the same vaccine is not available, or if the first product received is unknown, it is reasonable to offer a dose of the product locally available to complete the schedule,” according to the guidelines.

Mary Ramsay, head of immunizations at Public Health England, said that this would only happen on extremely rare occasions and that the government was not recommending mixing vaccines, which require at least two doses administered several weeks apart.

“Every effort should be made to give them the same vaccine, but where that is not possible, it is better to give a second dose of another vaccine than not to,” she said.

COVID-19 has killed more than 74,000 people in Britain – the second highest number of deaths in Europe, and health officials are rushing to deliver doses to help end the pandemic, as fears increase that the health service may be overburdened.

Earlier this week, the government reactivated emergency hospitals built at the beginning of the outbreak, as wards filled with patients with COVID-19. Britain has been at the forefront of approving new coronavirus vaccines, becoming the first country to give emergency clearance to Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca / University of Oxford vaccines last month.

Both vaccines must be administered in two doses, several weeks apart, but they are not designed to be mixed.

The new government guidelines state that “there is no evidence on the interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines, although studies are ongoing.”

However, the council said that while every effort should be made to complete the dosing regimen with the same vaccine, if the patient is at “immediate high risk” or is considered “unlikely to return,” he may receive different vaccines.

Britain sparked controversy earlier this week when it announced plans to postpone administration of the booster vaccine against coronavirus in an attempt to ensure that more people could receive the most limited protection afforded by a single dose.

The United States’ leading infectious disease specialist, Anthony Fauci, said on Friday that he disagreed with the British approach of postponing the second dose by up to 12 weeks.

“I would not be in favor of that,” he told CNN. “We will continue to do what we are doing”.