Mixing of vaccines had shown a good immune response against Covid-19. ICMR had found taking dose of two different vaccines are not only safe but also provides better immunity against the virus.
In Uttar Pradesh, Maharajganj district accidentally a man was administered two different shots of Covid-19 vaccines. In first shot he was administered Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. But in his second shot he accidentally received Covishield. His name is Umesh. He works as a driver of Chief Development Officer of Maharajganj. 20 people in UP’s Siddharthnagar district also had received shots of two different vaccines.
They were administered Covishield on first week of April and as second dose they got Covaxin on May,14. The recipients haven’t felt any adverse effect after these shots of two different vaccines.
After this Indian Council of Medical Research had conducted a study. They found that mixing of Covid-19 vaccines is showing better results in building immunity against the virus. In Uttar Pradesh a study was done on the month of May and June in this year. Covaxin is an inactivated vaccine and Covisheild is an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine. It had been observed that administration of vector vaccine followed by inactivated vaccine of Covid-19 is safe and also gives better immunity against the variants of SARS-CoV-2. ICMR researchers conducted a study with those who had got shots of two different vaccine and others who have got shots of same vaccine. The study was conducted on 18 individuals who got shots of two different vaccine and 40 individuals who got both shots of Covaxin and 40 other individuals who got both shots of Covishield. They found no excessive reaction for mix up of vaccine doses. But on the other hand, immunity developed by the group which got two different vaccines were more superior. They have showed better antibody response in comparison to those who had taken two shots of same vaccine.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization granted permission to Christian medical College Vellore to conduct a study on 300 volunteers for mixing of Covaxin and CoviShield doses. The purpose of the study is to find out whether a person can be given jabs of two different Covid-19 vaccines to complete vaccination course. Several studies had been conducted in Europe by mixing shots of two different vaccines of AstraZeneca of Oxford and other mRNA vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech. As a result, they observed a stronger immune response from different other variants of SARS-CoV-2.
But World Health Organization have warned for mixing of Covid-19 vaccine doses. According to Soumya Swaminathan it is a “dangerous trend”. I think she had said this because there is very less data available for this. According to her public health authorities should decide this not any individual.
After all I can say more studies should be carried out to examine the safety and effectiveness of the trend of mixing vaccines.
