It was in late 2019 that the first case of coronavirus infection was detected in Wuhan, China. The infection soon spread like wildfire, and it finally emerged as a global pandemic, causing ultimate chaos in all nooks of the planet. According to the latest updates, the Covid pandemic has already claimed the lives of nearly four million people worldwide, and as Delta variant is becoming the dominant strain in several countries, medical experts believe that coronavirus could continue its rampage in the coming months as well.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had several times warned that the only possible way to curb the spread of the pandemic is by ramping up the vaccination process. And now, a top WHO scientist has warned that mixing Covid vaccines from different manufacturers is undoubtedly a dangerous trend that is not advisable.
Mixing Covid vaccines is not supported by data
WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan revealed that there is no sufficient data on the practice of mixing vaccines, and following this practice could ultimately result in chaos.
"Really want to caution, because there is a tendency now for people in countries which enough availability of vaccines to voluntarily start thinking. So, it is a dangerous trend here, we are in a data-free evidence-free zone. As far as to mix and match, there is limited data. There are studies going on, we need to wait for that. Maybe it will be a very good approach. But, at the moment we only have data on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, followed by Pfizer. It will be a chaotic situation in countries if citizens start deciding when and who will be taking a second, a third, and a fourth dose," warned Soumya Swaminathan.
The necessity of booster shots
During the online briefing, Soumya Swaminathan also talked about the necessity of prioritizing coronavirus vaccines as there are several countries where the frontline workers still have not received the shot. She also made it clear that there is no scientific evidence that a booster shot is definitely needed to elevate the protection against the Covid pandemic.
"We have four countries that have announced booster programs and a few more that are thinking about it. If 11 high and upper-middle-income countries decide that they will go for a booster for their population, or even sub-groups, this will require an additional 800 million doses of vaccine," added Soumya.
