Mixing Pfizer, AstraZeneca Covid-19 shots with Moderna gives better immune response, UK study suggests
- Major UK study tested vaccine combinations on more than 1,000 volunteers
- Flexible vaccine dosing is already used by some governments worldwide
“We found a really good immune response across the board …, in fact, higher than the threshold set by Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine two doses,” Matthew Snape, the Oxford professor behind the trial dubbed Com-COV2, said.
The findings supporting flexible dosing will offer some hope to poor and middle income countries which may need to combine different brands between first and second shots if supplies run low or become unstable.
“I think the data from this study will be especially interesting and valuable to low and middle-income countries where they’re still rolling out the first two doses of vaccines,” Snape said.
01:31
Omicron spreads to 48 countries, party in Norway becomes superspreader event for coronavirus variant
“We’re showing … you don’t have to stick rigidly to receiving the same vaccine for a second dose … and that if the programme will be delivered more quickly by using multiple vaccines, then it is okay to do so.”
If the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is followed by a Moderna or Novavax shot, higher antibodies and T-cell responses were induced versus two doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford, according to researchers at the University of Oxford.