Canada approves Mixing & Matching Covid-19 vaccine brands

Canada has recommended “mixing and matching” of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.

NACI Guidelines

National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) had issued guidelines for provinces and territories on mixing and matching second doses of Covid-19 vaccines. It has advised Canadians to combine either “AstraZeneca-Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots” interchangeably for specific situations. NACI recommended it on the basis of early research from UK & Spain. Research highlights, mixing shots of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines was safe and effective in preventing the disease. It recommended, first shot of AstraZeneca vaccine can be followed by shots of Moderna or Pfizer.

Why mixing-matching was recommended?

Canadians who had a first dose of Moderna or Pfizer, they can now take any one of two shots as a second dose. This is so, because both the vaccines were prepared with similar mRNA technology.

National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI)

NACI is an external advisory body which is responsible for providing Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) with independent medical, scientific, and public health advice related to immunization. It comprises of experts from fields like paediatrics, pharmacy, infectious diseases, immunology, epidemiology, nursing, Pharmacoeconomics, social science etc.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2021