WHO warns against mixing COVID-19 vaccines

The World Health Organization – WHO chief scientist directed people against mixing and matching COVID-19 inoculations from dissimilar producers, calling it a “dangerous trend” meanwhile there was diminutive data accessible about the health influence.

“It’s a little bit of a dangerous trend here. We are in a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as to mix and match,” Soumya Swaminathan stated in an online briefing.

“It will be a chaotic situation in countries if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third, and a fourth dose.”

Thailand decides to mix Covid-19 shots as cases increases

Thailand has changed its inoculation policy to mix China’s Sinovac with the AstraZeneca vaccine in an attempt to increase protection.

The conclusion comes after hundreds of health workers wedged Covid despite being fully inoculated with Sinovac.

Instead of two Sinovac shots, people will now obtain the AstraZeneca vaccine after their first Sinovac shot.

Health workers who are already fully inoculated with Sinovac will also obtain the third booster from a dissimilar vaccine.

This can be either the AstraZeneca vaccine or an mRNA vaccine-like Pfizer/BioNTech.

This third dose will be given three to four weeks after their second Sinovac jab, stated the country’s National Infectious Disease Committee.

AstraZeneca is presently the only other vaccine accessible in the country, with Pfizer/BioNTech shots contributed by the US set to arrive soon.

Thailand first received Sinovac vaccines from China and began giving shots to its health workers in February.

Whereas the health ministry said out of more than 677,000 medical staff who were fully inoculated with Sinovac, 618 were disease-ridden between April and July.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing results from Chile, Sinovac has an effectiveness rate of 65.9% against Covid-19, is 87.5% effective at avoiding hospitalization, and 86.3% effective at precluding death.

Thailand is currently in the middle of a spear of new infections, recording a record high of 9,418 on Sunday. The death toll for the previous day stood at 91.

Concerns over the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine among rising cases have abruptly driven demand for other shots accessible by some private clinics.

Overall, Thailand has seen more than 345,000 established cases of Covid-19 and nearly 2,800 deaths since the commencement of the pandemic in 2020, according to figures gathered by Johns Hopkins University from around the world.

There are apprehensions that the spear in cases in many southeast Asian countries is due to the extent of the more transferrable Delta variant, first discovered in India.