Two European leaders switch to different COVID vaccines for second doses
June 23, 2021 02:10 pm
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as her second jab after getting a dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as her first, foreign media reported on Tuesday.
The 66-year-old leader, who took her first dose in April, was vaccinated again a few days ago.
Germany and several other European countries, in March, halted the rollout of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines following multiple reports on blood clots cases.
However, in April, Germany made the vaccine developed by a British-Swedish manufacturer available to its people over the age of 60 years.
According to foreign media, Germany has ramped up its inoculation drive in recent week and more than half of the country’s population has now received their first dose of a vaccine.
In April, Germany recommended that people who received a first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine should receive a different shot for their second dose.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who had received a dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has switched to Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for his second dose, according to his spokesman.
The Italian government, in early June, stated that those under the age of 60 should no longer be administered the AstraZeneca jab citing rare blood clot cases and recommended switching to a difference vaccine.
After the recommendation sparked a major debate in Italy over whether such a mix-and-match approach was safe, the 73-year-old prime minister said he would switch from AstraZeneca.
Several other EU countries including Sweden, Norway and Austria are also allowing people to have an mRNA shot for their second dose if they were first vaccinated with AstraZeneca, after those countries also changed their advice on the jab.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has stressed that the AstraZeneca jab remains approved for all adults, saying the benefits continue to outweigh the risks.
One UK study into mix-and-match of COVID vaccines in two-dose inoculations has found that people who received Pfizer’s jab followed by a dose of AstraZeneca, or vice versa, were more likely to report mild or moderate common post-vaccination symptoms than if they received two doses of the same type.
-with inputs from agencies
