Knowing how to combine vaccines will put UK ‘in leadership position’

LONDON: Knowing how to mix Covid-19 vaccine doses will put the UK in a leadership position when it comes to helping the world tackle the coronavirus pandemic, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi has said.

He said understanding more about how to use different coronavirus jabs together will also allow the nation to hold a “much stronger position” in its own vaccination programme.

It comes as a first-of-its-kind study is launched in the UK to determine whether different coronavirus vaccines can safely be used for the first and second doses. The research will initially include the Oxford University/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, with more jabs added to the list once approved.

Zahawi said that the trial would not have an impact on deployment of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK. He told Sky News: “If you have currently had the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, you will get your Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as your second dose, your booster dose.

“And of course if you have the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, you’ll get the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. This is more longer-term, keeping us ahead of — at least in a leadership position, I should say — in the world, in helping the whole world because no-one is safe until we are all safe.

“If we understand more about how we can use vaccines together then we should be in a much stronger position in terms of vaccinating the United Kingdom, but also the rest of the world.”

The Com-Cov study, which has received £7 million in funding through the Government’s Vaccines Taskforce, will investigate whether a mixed-dose vaccine regimen is better than, or a good alternative to, using two doses of the same Covid-19 jab.

If findings show the combined effect of the jabs is safe and induces immune response, the researchers said it would make vaccine implementation more flexible and lay the groundwork for introducing additional booster doses.

Lead scientist Dr Matthew Snape, associate professor in paediatrics and vaccinology at the University of Oxford and chief investigator in the Com-Cov study, said: “This is new and this is exciting, it will be the first study looking at using the RNA vaccine, which is the Pfizer/BioNTech one, and a viral vector vaccine which is the Oxford/AstraZeneca one in the same schedule.”

The Com-Cov study will also investigate whether mixing doses will offer protection against coronavirus variants. More than 800 people aged 50 and above will take part, with early results expected in June — in time to inform policy use of booster vaccines among younger age groups.