Bahamas Plans To Mix Astrazeneca And Pfizer Vaccine

• Minister of Health of Bahamas Renward Wells gave a recent update on the mixing of vaccines to the people. The Bahamas awaits a tranche of Pfizer doses from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVAX Facility and it could offer beneficiaries of AstraZeneca a second dose of the US-manufactured vaccine (Pfizer), as studies have shown that vaccine mixing offers strong immune protection. 
• In a statement, he pointed to existing studies where mixing of AstraZeneca and Pfizer were found to have been “very effective”. However, he did not definitively say whether The Bahamas would adopt the measure. Canada, Spain and South Korea have approved dose-mixing due to concerns about rare but possible blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine. 
• As per the preliminary results of the CombivacS Spanish study, the presence of antibodies in the bloodstream was between 30 & 40 times more in people who got the follow-up Pfizer shot than others in the control group, who only got one AstraZeneca dose. 
• The presence of neutralizing antibodies rose sevenfold after a Pfizer dose — more than double the effect observed when receiving a second dose of AstraZeneca. Nearly 700 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 59 participated in the state-backed study, with around 450 given a Pfizer dose. 
• Amid concerns about coronavirus variants, including the Delta strain, Wells said the vaccines have proven effective against all five variants of concern, maintaining that it is not a matter of if but when the Delta variant is confirmed in The Bahamas. 
• However, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist advised against mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccine doses on Monday, calling it a “dangerous trend” given the limited data about the long-term health impact.

(Source: West Indies and Caribbean News)