A study has revealed that if a person is administered Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca-Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson as a booster dose, that is, after receiving the two doses of Covid inactivated virus vaccine from Sinovac, would significantly increase the number of antibodies in that person.
The CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, is an inactivated virus Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech.
The “mix-and-match" booster approach induced stronger antibody protection against both delta and omicron, compared with a third dose of Sinovac’s vaccine, known as CoronaVac, the study showed.
Earlier World Health Organisation (WHO)' s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) had issued interim recommendations for the use of the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine against Covid-19.
The UN health agency had said, “To ensure equivalent or favourable immunogenicity or vaccine effectiveness either of the WHO EUL COVID-19 mRNA vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna) or the WHO EUL COVID-19 vectored vaccines (AstraZeneca Vaxzevria/COVISHIELD or Janssen) can be used as a second dose following a first dose with the Sinovac vaccine dependant on product availability."
The best response was seen when an RNA vaccine was given as a booster after the standard schedule of Sinovac's CoronaVac, researchers from Oxford University said on Monday, adding that the responses were seen against the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants too.
On 22 January, a study by researchers from Brazil and the University of Oxford revealed that people who had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine made by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. should get boosted with a different shot to amp up their protection against omicron.
Booster shots are being administered to the most vulnerable groups around the world, as Omicron variant of coronavirus fuels the third Covid wave of the pandmeic bringing everything to a stand still.
