By Tayhana Taylor, World News Editor
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues a green light for Americans to mix-and-match COVID-19 vaccines for booster shots.
Overtime, the efficacy of a primary two dose vaccination series against the coronavirus may decrease. Hence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Americans who have completed their two-dose vaccine series get a booster shot six months after the second dose for both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to maintain protection against the coronavirus.
Booster shots are not the same as an additional dose. Adults who are severely immunocompromised are eligible for a third dose of vaccination at least 21 days after their second dose.
The FDA’s decision to authorize a mix-and-match booster dose came after a presentation of a clinical trial from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). It is anticipated that this mixing and matching strategy of the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson-Janssen vaccines may result in giving people a stronger immune response to the virus than an extra dose of the same vaccine.
According to FDA.gov, “the known and potential benefits of the use of a single heterologous booster dose outweighs the known and potential risks of their use in eligible populations.” Simply put — a heterologous prime-boost immunization involves health care providers administering two different vectors that have overlapping antigenic inserts.
Heterologous prime-boost immunization can only take place after the completion of a primary vaccination series. The FDA asserts that the eligible population and dosing interval for the heterologous booster is the same as those for a booster dose of the vaccine used for primary vaccination.
The side-effects of getting a booster shot may be like that of getting a regular dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. A person is still considered fully vaccinated two weeks after their completing their initial vaccination series, even if they have not received a booster shot or an additional dose.
For more updates on COVID-19 vaccination, you may visit:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html
