JAKARTA – To date, five types of COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use in Indonesia, namely Sinovac, Bio Farma’s COVID-19 vaccine, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Moderna. With so many types of vaccines, the question arises, can the first and second doses of vaccines be different?
In response to this, World Health Organization (WHO) chief researcher Dr Soumya Swaminathan said immunologically this might make sense. However, until now there is not enough data to be able to recommend giving two doses of different types of vaccines.
Even so, he revealed that several countries were conducting research related to giving different vaccines at the first and second doses. However, to answer whether the first and second doses of vaccine are different, Dr Swaminathan still recommends getting the same type of vaccine.
“So, for now it is recommended to get a second dose with the same vaccine as the first dose,” said Dr Swaminathan, quoted from the WHO’s official website, Thursday (8/7/2021).
In line with Dr Swaminathan, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 vaccination, Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi also recommended getting the same type of vaccine at the first and second doses. According to him, using a different type of vaccine will make it difficult to detect Post Immunization Adverse Events (AEFI).
“It will be difficult later if there is an AEFI, to determine which AEFI is due to which vaccine,” said Dr Nadia, quoted from CNN Indonesia.
However, the spokesperson for the COVID-19 vaccination of the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) Lucia Rizka Andalusia gave a slightly different answer about whether the first and second doses of vaccines should be different. He said the use of vaccines with different types can still be done, provided the raw materials used are still the same.
According to him, if you use vaccines with different basic ingredients, antibodies will not be formed optimally in the body. “An example (of the vaccine with the same ingredients) is the CoronaVac vaccine (Sinovac) with the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Bio Farma,” he added. (E-4)
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