COVID 19 Vaccine - Can we mix brands

We are all eagerly looking for COVID 19 vaccination in India, getting vaccinated is a difficult task and all of us like fish out of water. If you get a shot of Covaxine first, you will be waiting for the same for the second dose. 

Are there any issues using Covishield in the second dose?

Vaccines are said to be different because their method of manufacturing is different. Some of them are heat-killing vaccines, protein vector vaseline or mRNA vaccines. However, the basic principle of vaccination is simple: our immune system recognizes the antigen part of the vaccine and builds antibodies, thus working when infected in future.

Moreover, no vaccine residues remain in our body at the time of the second dose, but only immune memory cells remember the antigen. So there will not be any difficulty in using a second dose or booster dose with different vaccines.

Recently good news has come out by Oxford University, they tried the usage and efficacy of mixing of covid vaccines of AstraZeneca and Pfizer with 850 volunteers. Their findings were amazing. No issues were reported while mixing vaccines and mixed dose schedules were also effective, said Matthew Snape of Oxford University.

Some countries are already using mixed doses such as Germany and Spain. Therefore, it's a piece of good news for India, importing or manufacturing different brands will help to curb the vaccine shortage.

Sileesh Mullasseri