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The government has said mixing of COVID-19 vaccines is not the protocol yet and there is no change in the schedule of two-dose vaccines Covishield and Covaxin, amid reports that India is planning to start trials to test the feasibility of a regimen that uses two different jabs and the effectiveness of a single dose.
It said the standard operating procedure of administering the doses of the same vaccine should be followed.
Some media reports have claimed that India may begin trials “in a few weeks” to see if mixing two different COVID-19 vaccines can help boost the immune response to the virus.
Addressing a press conference, NITI Aayog (Health) member Dr V K Paul presented two scenarios on the mixing of Covid vaccines.
“On the one hand, it might be possible that mixing of vaccines can lead to bad reactions… On the other, science also indicates that mixing of vaccines could be useful and lead to an increase in immunity but a severe reaction and harm cannot be ruled out and therefore there is research going on in other countries.
“This is a scientific matter and till the time it does not get sorted, we will say it is an unresolved scientific question over which there is no change in our programme,” he said.
