Is it relevant and effective to combine two doses of different vaccines anti-Covid in the same patient remains effective in protecting him against virus ? The English University of Oxford announced on Thursday that it was launching a study to answer this question which could be crucial in view of the current supply difficulties.
“If we show that these vaccines can be used interchangeably, this will greatly increase the flexibility of their distribution”, Oxford researcher Professor Matthew Snape said in a statement. This study, presented as a world first, will involve 820 volunteers over 50 years old, will focus on the combination of the two vaccines currently used on British territory, that of the Pfizer / BioNTech alliance and that ofAstraZeneca/Oxford.
The interval between two injections of the same vaccine will also be studied.
It will also evaluate the effectiveness of the protection according to the spacing of the two injections, testing an interval of four weeks, close to that initially recommended, and an interval of twelve weeks retained by the British authorities to reach more people. European country most affected by the pandemic with more than 108,000 deaths, the UK has made vaccination a national cause to get out of the health crisis, facing a new, more contagious variant that forced it to adopt a third confinement in early January.
Find our live from this Thursday, February 4, dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic
Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England Jonathan Van-Tam highlighted the interest of “Have data that could support a more flexible immunization program”, in particular because of “Supply-side constraints”. “It is even possible that by combining vaccines, the immune response is better, with higher levels of antibodies and which last longer”, he indicated.
The first Western country to start its campaign, the UK has so far vaccinated more than 10 million people, and is targeting 15 million people by mid-February, including those over 70, caregivers and those most at risk.
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