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21/05/2021

Increased Likelihood Of Mild To Moderate Symptoms From Mix And Match Covid-19 Vaccine, Finds A New Study




Increased Likelihood Of Mild To Moderate Symptoms From Mix And Match Covid-19 Vaccine, Finds A New Study
A study in the United Kingdom to understand the effect on people of having two doses of two different Covid-19 vaccines found greater likelihood of reporting of mild to moderate symptoms for mix and match vaccines compared to two doses of the same vaccine.
 
The immune responses among participants of the study who were administered a dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine followed by the Pfizer-BioNTech one — and vice versa was studied by the so-called “Com-COV” study which was led by the University of Oxford and which has been touted by the UK government as a “world-first”.
 
The preliminary study results has shown that those volunteers who had been administered a mixed dose of Covid-19 vaccines reported  more frequent reactions compared to those participants who were given two doses of the same vaccine.
 
Chills, fatigue, feverishness, headache, joint pain, malaise, muscle ache and pain at the injection site were among the mild to moderate symptoms that were complained of by the volunteers who were given mixed vaccine doses.
 
The study however also noted that the adverse reactions persisted for a short period of time and no safety concerns were found in the study.
 
The study was conducted among volunteers aged 50 years and more. The results of the study therefore indicates that people of younger age groups could report more incidents of adverse effects from a mixed vaccine schedule, researchers of the study said.
 
An increase in absenteeism from work the day after immunization against the coronavirus could be the result of administering people with a mixed dose of two different Covid-19 vaccines.
 
Both of the alternating vaccine schedules of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine caused more frequent adverse reactions after the second dose was administered compared to the standard non-mixed schedules when given at a four-week interval, researchers of the trial reported – according to the results of the study that was published in a peer-reviewed research letter in The Lancet international medical journal.
 
“Whilst this is a secondary part of what we are trying to explore through these studies, it is important that we inform people about these data, especially as these mixed-doses schedules are being considered in several countries,” Matthew Snape, associate professor in Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.
 
“The results from this study suggest that mixed dose schedules could result in an increase in work absences the day after immunisation, and this is important to consider when planning immunisation of health care workers,” he added.
 
The researchers also underlined that there were no safety concerns of the mix and match vaccine doses and there was no clear deductions on the impact on immune response form a mixed schedule, said Snape, who is also chief investigator on the trial.
 
“We hope to report these data in the coming months. In the meantime, we have adapted the ongoing study to assess whether early and regular use of paracetamol reduces the frequency of these reactions,” Snape said.
 
(Source:www.cnbc.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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