Merdeka.com – An epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Public Health (FKM UI), Pandu Riono, asked the government to provide a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to health workers. The type of Covid-19 vaccine for this third dose must be different from the second dose or combination.
“Then Jokowi Please protect our health workers (health workers) with a third vaccination with a different vaccine, Pfizer or Moderna, in order to save the lives of health workers who are affected by an increasingly unstoppable spike in cases,” Pandu said, Sunday (4/7).
This alumnus of the University of Pittsbrug, United States, said that giving the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in combination is very important to build the immunity of health workers.
“Combinations of different vaccines provide a better immune response,” he said.
Pandu then mentioned the results of a study in England which showed that mixing two different types of Covid-19 vaccines increased immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The two vaccines are AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
“Studies in the UK (United Kingdom), the combination of AZ (AstraZeneca) and Pfizer have been published,” he said.
Previously reported, Oxford University research showed that Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine injection given four weeks after the first injection of AstraZeneca vaccine provided a better immune response, than one more dose of AstraZeneca.
The study, named Com-CoV, compared a combination of two doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The combination of these two vaccines produces a high enough concentration of antibodies against the corona virus protein crown.
Quoted from the South China Morning Post page, Tuesday (29/6), the data became a reference for a number of European countries to start offering a second vaccine injection with AstraZeneca after there were cases of blood clots in a number of patients injected with the Pfizer vaccine.
Matthew Snape, professor at the University of Oxford who conducted the research, said the findings could be used as a basis for determining the use of a more flexible vaccine.
“It’s a relief that the antibody and T-cell response is pretty good with this vaccine combination,” he told reporters.
One dose of AstraZeneca followed by one dose of Pfizer gave the best T cell response and also high antibody levels than Pfizer first and then AstraZeneca.
This combination vaccine was administered at intervals of four weeks between the first and second injections to 830 volunteers.
Com-CoV also observed a 12-week interval between doses. According to Snape, the AstraZeneca vaccine provides a better immune response when the second dose is longer. [gil]
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