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LONDON: Britain will allow people to receive injections of different COVID-19 vaccines on rare occasions, despite a lack of evidence on the degree of immunity offered by the combination of doses.
In a departure from other strategies globally, the government said people could receive a combination of two COVID-19 injections, for example if the same dose of vaccine was out of stock, according to guidelines released 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 available locally to complete the program,” according to the guidelines.
Mary Ramsay, head of immunizations at Public Health England, said this would only happen on extremely rare occasions and that the government did not recommend mixing vaccines, which require at least two doses administered several weeks apart.
“Every effort should be made to give them the same vaccine, but when this is not possible, it is better to give a second dose of another vaccine than not to give it,” he said.
READ: UK in ‘eye of the storm’ amid new coronavirus cases
COVID-19 has killed more than 74,000 people in Britain, the second-highest death toll in Europe, and health officials are rushing to deliver doses to help end the pandemic as fears mount. that the health service may be overwhelmed.
Earlier this week, the government reactivated emergency hospitals built at the beginning of the outbreak as wards filled with COVID-19 patients.
Britain has been at the forefront in approving new coronavirus vaccines, becoming the first country to grant emergency authorization to the Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccines last month.
Both vaccines are designed to be given in two injections, several weeks apart, but they were not designed to mix.
READ: Britain approves COVID-19 AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine
READ: More England COVID-19 patients in hospital than April peak
The new government guidelines said “there is no evidence on the interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines, although studies are underway.”
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 deemed “unlikely to attend again,” they may be administer different vaccines.
Britain sparked controversy earlier this week by announcing plans to delay the administration of the coronavirus booster vaccine in a bid to ensure that more people can receive the more limited protection provided by a single dose.
America’s leading infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said on Friday that he disagreed with the British approach of delaying the second dose for up to 12 weeks.
“I wouldn’t be in favor of that,” he told CNN. “We are going to continue doing what we are doing.”
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