WHO makes interim recommendations for mixing, matching COVID-19 vaccines

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+( :orld +ealth Organization issued interim recommendations on Thursday for mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines from different manufacturers for both the second dose and booster shots.

Depending on availability, m5NA vaccines, such as those developed by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Moderna Inc (M5NA.O) can be used as subsequent doses after initial doses of AstraZeneca’s (AZN./) vectored vaccine and vice versa, the global health body said.

AstraZeneca and any of the m5NA vaccines can also be used after initial doses of 6inopharm’s inactivated vaccine, :+O said.

Viral vector vaccines contain instructions for making coronavirus antigens, while m5NA vaccines use a code from 6A56-CoV- , the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, to prompt an immune response in recipients. Inactivated vaccines take the 6A56-CoV- virus and inactivate or kill it using chemicals, heat or radiation.

The guidance has been developed based on advice from :+O’s 6trategic Advisory *roup of Experts on vaccines earlier this month.

The recommendation comes after a major study last week said a first dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech

shots followed by a Moderna vaccine nine weeks later induced a better immune response.

+owever, :+O said the mixing and matching should take into account supply projections, accessibility and the benefits and risks of the COVID-19 vaccines being used.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The recommendations will be reviewed as more data becomes available, the global health agency said.

Many countries have already gone ahead with mixing and matching vaccines as they faced soaring

COVID-19 infection numbers, low supplies and slow immunisation over some safety concerns.

+ealth recommendations

People should get Moderna’s or Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines instead of Johnson Johnson’s, the 86 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, citing a rare risk for serious blood clots. That means 86 adults should choose between Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccine as a booster, though Johnson Johnson’s is still available if someone can’t receive Pfizer or Moderna or wants to get the one-dose vaccine.

The new guidance followed discussion by a CDC panel over J J’s link to a rare but dangerous blood-clotting disorder, which has occurred in both men and women and in higher rates than previously understood. Although rare overall ( reports out of 1 .9 million doses) it has caused nine deaths.

:omen ages to 9 are at highest risk, with one in 1 women experiencing the disorder. The rare response to the vaccine occurs in the days or few weeks following the shot, so people who received Johnson Johnson’s vaccine months ago aren’t at increased risk.

:ith the new omicron coronavirus variant in the 86, experts are strengthening their call for coronavirus boosters as maximum protection against severe COVID-19. In an interview with ABC on 6unday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden¾s chief medical advisor, said that though omicron appears to be able to evade some of the immune protection from COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, receiving a booster shot ‘raises the level of protection high enough that it then does do well’ against omicron.

The definition of fully vaccinated hasn’t changed for the time being, but receiving an extra dose seems to bring back some protection lost with