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Study: Mixing COVID vaccines results in stronger response
New study conducted in Germany and published in Nature Medicine involved 216 volunteers. Fifty-five received two doses of AstraZeneca’s viral vector vaccine, 64 received two doses of an mRNA vaccine, and 97 received a combination of one AstraZeneca dose and an mRNA booster shot.
The findings revealed that one shot of AstraZeneca followed by a shot of either Pfizer or Moderna resulted in a stronger immune response than having two doses of AstraZeneca. The study also found that the combination gave an equally strong, or stronger, immune response than two doses of an mRNA vaccine.
The findings are consistent with other similar studies, including Oxford University’s Com-COV trial. Involving more than 800 volunteers, it found those who received a mix of AstraZeneca and Pfizer generated a strong immune response against the virus.
However, the order of vaccines made a difference, with AstraZeneca followed by Pfizer ‘inducing higher antibodies and T-cell responses than Pfizer followed by AstraZeneca’.
