Mixing COVID-19 Vaccines: Is It Good For You?

All started from Wuhan, China in Dec 2019 is still progressing in 2021. The Covid-19 outbreak has been a dangerous time period that humanity never has faced before. But now after the introduction of its vaccines, there are some restraints on it. There is a wide range of vaccine manufacturers coming forward as saviours of humanity. But the main concern related to vaccines is their availability, as the world's population is a high-end number and vaccines are developed in a limited number. The other reason behind this concern is that most vaccines come in the set of two doses and once you get the first dose you have to wait for a particular time period to get the second one. Sometimes the second dose of that particular vaccine is not available as there is a shortage of its manufacturing.

Various popular healthcare industries; which have approved vaccine mixing to deal with this shortage and to provide boosted immunity to the person. Different countries are carrying out inoculation programmes by mixing different vaccines, but it would be a task of real pressure. As people around the globe are hesitating to go with it due to safety concerns. Some vaccines like Johnson & Johnson vaccine with mRNA vaccine from Moderna or Pfizer are approved for this mixing procedure. According to a study done in the USA; mixing these vaccines isn't risky and is a good option to get a booster dose. This study also shows that different kinds of vaccines let the body create a higher level of virus blocking antibodies compared to taking the same vaccine dose.

Is Mixing Dose of Different Vaccines Safe?

This is one of the most asked questions when it comes to mixing vaccines. Let's take an example of two vaccines that are used globally: Pfizer's Comirnaty & AstraZeneca's Vaxzevria. In certain research, it is found that mixing their doses will increase the efficiency of vaccines to many folds without any type of side effects. This mixing up of vaccines gives the immune system different ways to identify a pathogen. Now in some countries like Spain mixing these two vaccines for people under age 60 is authorized to get the immunity-boosting results.

How Mixing Different Vaccines Boosts Immunity?

The phase of mixing vaccines started when the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca led to a rare blood clotting health condition known as thrombosis. This put a halt to its usage and left many people partially vaccinated unless they switched to a different vaccine for the second dose. In some research, the people who were vaccinated using the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and then got the second dose of Pfizer showed a stronger immune response compared to the dose of the same vaccine.  The combination of two different vaccines produces 37 times more SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and 4 times more SARS-CoV-2-specific immune cells known as T cells.

Safety Concern Regarding Mixing of Vaccines

There are some cases of severe side effects with no mix and match trials. But it doesn't mean that mixing vaccines doesn’t have side effects, in other words, it elicited more side effects compared to getting two doses of the same vaccine. These side effects are seen in the very rare health conditions of a person.

Is Mixing Astra Zeneca with Pfizer Works Fine?

According to various researches, it is found that mixing these two vaccines generated a robust immune response that led to higher antibodies. This mix and match vaccination offered a quality of flexibility in the UK during the process of vaccination. After acknowledging its benefits various other countries also pursued the same procedure for quality vaccination.

Covid-19 Vaccines

The phase of Covid-19 fear has started to be dealt with. Now after tremendous efforts of various countries and different vaccine manufacturers, the vaccines for Covid-19 are finally here to save humanity. Here we have mentioned some of those vaccines in the following.

COVAXIN

A world popular Indian indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. It is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)- National Institute of Virology (NIV). Some of the key highlights are mentioned below.

It comes along with immune potentiators; which are also known as adjuvants to increase its immunogenicity.

In July 2021, the DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) approval for phase I & II human clinical trials was received for it.

Highly safe to use, as proper analysis is performed with 12% of subjects experiencing common side effects and less than 0.5% facing serious adverse events.

COVISHIELD

It is an effective COVID-19 vaccine that is manufactured by Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd. This vaccine comes in two separate doses of 0.5 ml each. According to SIIPL, the second dose should be administered between 4 to 12 weeks after the first dose.

Johnson and Johnson Vaccine

According to research performed on this vaccine’s effectiveness, it's found that it was 66.3% effective in clinical trials in preventing Covid-19 infection. It provides good efficacy in mitigating mortality rates and in the rate of hospitalization.

Moderna Vaccine

It is also a popular vaccine also known by the name Spikevax, which is developed by an American Company named Moderna and the BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority). This RNA vaccine is composed of nucleoside-modified mRNA (modRNA) encoding a spike protein of SARS-CoV-2; which is encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles.

Covid-19 Care Essentials

Precaution is better than cure; this statement has a great significance for most people around the globe after facing the pandemic. For effective care, stock up essential supplies to fight back this intruder from your life. Get Covid-19 care essentials like home test kits, cloth face masks, pulse oximeters and more from Ubuy! So be prepared and don't let this intruder bring a limit to your life.

Conclusion

Covid-19, this name needs no conclusion, still, it’s on a quest to get humanity on the knees. Here we have discussed mixing vaccines and explained how good or bad it is for you. The vaccines are the only protective barrier between you and the deadly grasp of Coronavirus. So, be active towards vaccination and get vaccinated as soon as possible. The mixing of vaccines is a good option to boost your immunity, but it can be troublesome in certain cases. Be careful and have a happy healthy life ahead.

Disclaimer

This article was written only for informational purposes. It was written after doing research on different sources both online and offline.