Mixing Pfizer, AZ Jabs With Other Vax Gives Robust Immunity: Lancet Study

Following up first doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines with second doses of the Moderna or Novavax jabs generates robust immune response against Covid-19, according to a study published in The Lancet journal.

London: A team led by researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK found that no safety concerns were raised in the study of 1,070 participants.

The study supports flexible use of these vaccines in primary immunisation schedules, which is crucial to help rapidly deploy these vaccines, especially in low- and middle-income countries where vaccine supply may be inconsistent. “Thanks to studies such as these, we are now getting a more complete picture of how different vaccines can be used together in the same vaccine schedule,” said Matthew Snape at the University of Oxford. “Encouragingly, all these schedules generated antibody concentrations above that of the licensed and effective two-dose Oxford-AZ schedule,” said Snape. When it comes to cellular immunity, the researchers said, having a first dose of the AZ shot followed by any of the other study vaccines generates a particularly robust response. In addition, a significantly higher number of short-lived vaccine reactions were reported in volunteers who got a second dose of Moderna compared to those who got two doses of AZ or Pfizer.