Some countries defend mixing vaccines after WHO criticizes the booster strategy. List attached

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Thu, 2021-07-15 09:57 — mike kraft

Covid-19 global updates: Some countries defend mixing vaccines after WHO suggests booster strategy is ‘chaotic’ WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said plans by some countries to administer booster shots signaled a “dangerous trend,” but many are pressing ahead amid concerns about the delta variant. Erin Cunningham Washington Post

Canadian and Thai health officials are defending the decision to mix different coronavirus vaccines after the World Health Organization’s chief scientist suggested this week that combining doses was potentially unsafe.

The WHO’s Soumya Swaminathan said in a briefing Monday that plans by some countries to administer booster shots signaled a “dangerous trend” that could lead to “a chaotic situation … if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third and a fourth dose.”

“We are in a bit of a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as ‘mix-and-match,’ ” she said. She later clarified on Twitter that she was concerned about individuals, rather than public health agencies that she said would have better data, deciding to get a mixed cocktail of shots.

A top Thai virologist fired back Tuesday, however, saying authorities would forge ahead with plans to mix a first dose of the Sinovac vaccine with a second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot.

Canadian public health officials also defended their plan to offer messenger RNA vaccines as a second shot to people who received a first dose of the adenovirus-based Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. “We have taken some strong decisions that quite frankly, are bearing out,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday. ...

Researchers in Britain, Russia and the United States are all conducting clinical trials testing mixed-shot vaccine regimens.

ALSO SEE: List of countries considering or using 'mix and match' COVID-19 vaccines --Reuters

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